Jim Butcher Quotes

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“You don’t have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you.”

“I’d gone with my usual option. I was running through long tunnels filled with demons and monsters and nightmares, because it was easier than going to the gym.”

“There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.”

“All power is the same. Magic. Physical strength. Economic strength. Political strength. It all serves a single purpose-it gives its possessor a broader spectrum of choices. It creates alternative courses of action.”

“Many women have earned titles, Your Grace. It doesn't seem to have been a factor in whether or not they actually received them.”

“For me chivalry isn't dead; it's an involuntary reflex.”

“Do you want your blood to stay where it is sochar-lar?"
Tavi lifted both eyebrows at the unfamiliar word, and glanced at Varg.
"Monkey," Varg supplied, in Aleran. "And male-child."
"He called me monkey boy?" Tavi asked.”

“This is ridiculous. I look like the Games Workshop version of a Jedi Knight.”

“Harry Dresden: As a whole, people suck, but a person can be extraordinary.”

“Bigots see something they expect and then they stop thinking about what is in front of them. It's probably how they got to be bigots in the first place.”

“Maybe,” he said in a slow, rural drawl, “you could explain to me why I found you in the middle of an orgy.”
“Well,” I said, “if you’re going to be in an orgy, the middle is the best spot, isn’t it.”

“The Blue Beetle was not a clown car," I said severely. "It was a machine of justice.”

“I could buy that she would murder me in a fit of rage, poison me out of flaming jealousy, or bomb my car out of sheer, stubborn pique. But she would never do it and feel nothing.”

“You know the law, Dresden."
"He who kills the cheer springs for beer," chanted the rest of the table.”

“I can't be under arrest now… I don't have time.”

“Living was a dangerous past-time, and often quite painful—but there was also such joy in living, such beauty, things that one would otherwise never see, never experience, never know. The risk of pain and loss was a part of living.”

“My brief flash of relief and confidence melted away. Good thing it did, too. I'm sure the world would come to an end if I were allowed to feel a sense of relief and well-being for any length of time.”

“Unicorns," I said. "Very dangerous. You go first.”

“Just because you start out as one thing, it doesn't mean you can't grow into something else.”

“I will make Maggie safe. If the world burns because of that then so be it. Me and the kid will roast some marshmallows.”

“I had a vague memory of being that ridiculous at one time. Let he who hath never worn parachute pants cast the first stone.”

“It rained toads the day the White Council came to town.”

“Children are a precious gift, but they belong to no one but themselves. They are only lent us a little while.”

“Some men fall from grace. Some are pushed.”

“Sticks and stones and small caliber bullets may break my bones… Words will never, et cetera.”

“Kid. You just made the last mistake of your life.'
'God,' I said. 'I.”

“I slammed the doors open a little harder than I needed to, stalked out to the Blue Beetle, and drove away with all the raging power the ancient four-cylinder engine should muster. Behold the angry wizard puttputt-putting away.”

“It would require a singularly stupid man to go hang around in narrow tunnels and cramped spaces alongside a threat like that.

"And I, Harry Dresden, am that man," I stated.”

“There is no spoon. I am completely spoonless over here.”

“I would hit you on the head with a rock and drag you away from this. But it would only shatter the rock.”

“I’d had a key to the marina’s locks at one time, but I’d lost track of it when I got shot, drowned, died, got revived into a coma, haunted my friends for a while, and then woke up in Mab’s bed.

(My life. Hell’s bells.)”

“I do not need the written code of a spiritual belief to act like a decent human being.”

“But I am dead certain--ba-dump-bump-ching--that I'm the first guy to lead an army of spirits in an assault from the spirit-world side… and had them start off screaming, "BOO!”

“Harry Dresden: Boobs are near the center of the universe, until you turn twenty-five or so. Which is also when young men’s auto insurance rates go down. This is not a coincidence.”

“He's Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull, with a big leather coat and a.44 revolver in his pocket.”

“I'm sure that you psychotic necro-wannabes with delusions of godhood are all about sharing with your fellow maniacs.”

“I made a sandwich out of things. I'm an American. We can eat anything as long as it's between two pieces of bread.”

“It was never too late to learn something. The past is unalterable in any event. The future is the only thing we can change. Learning the lessons of the past is the only way to shape the present and the future.”

“He wasn't evil as much as magnificently innocent of any kind of morality.”

“Bob, would you be willing to take on Evil Bob?"

Bob's eyes darted nervously. "I'd… prefer not to. I'd really, really prefer not to. You have no idea. That me was crazy. And buff. He worked out.”

“The only good thing about having your back to the wall is that it makes it really easy to choose which way you're going to go.”

“beer is an excellent argument that there is a God, and that furthermore, He wants us to be happy.”

“Fire isn't always an element of destruction. Classical alchemical doctrine teaches that it also has dominion over another province: change.”

“Kincaid, evidently exhausted himself, drew a gun, took the safety off, placed it on his chest, and went to sleep too.

"It's cute," I whispered to Murphy. "He has a teddy Glock.”

“Because nothing says flattery like a gun to the head.”

“Uh, the Council," I said. "Big shock, they aren't helping."

Murphy looked like she might be asleep, but she snorted. "So we're on our own."

Yeah."

Good. It's more familiar.”

“Being here? With you? I've met my subconscious, and he's not that sick.”

“If I stay, they'll kill me… If I go, at least everything that wants me dead won't be taking it personally.”

“Each creature had something it excelled at, he supposed. Humans could manage knots easily, and cats could do everything else.”