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Jim Butcher Quotes
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Jim Butcher is an American author best known for his contemporary fantasy book series The Dresden Files. He is also the author of the Codex Alera series, and the Cinder Spires series.

✵ 26. October 1971
Jim Butcher photo
Jim Butcher: 383   quotes 51   likes

Jim Butcher Quotes

“Five white candles surrounded my summoning circle, the points of an invisible pentacle. White for protection. And because they’re the cheapest color at Wal-Mart.”

Jim Butcher book Grave Peril

Source: Grave Peril

Color

“I like to think of it less as embezzling and more as an involuntary goodwill contribution.”

Jim Butcher Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Thinking

“Crows," Maximus breathed. "Was that who I think it was?"
"Phrygiar Navaris," Tavi said, nodding.
"What was she doing here?" Max asked.
"Getting humiliated, mostly. Especially there at the end.”

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

Thinking

“Because Nicodemus is a murderous murdering murderer,” I said.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Skin Game

“You are different. That does not make you less.”

Jim Butcher book Academ's Fury

Academ's Fury

“We all have our demons.”

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Fool Moon

“Harry Dresden: We still hadn't learned, though, that growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something. Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind-graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being torn up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life as they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, White Night (2007), Chapter 31

Love , Life , Pain , Hope

“Sanya, Knight of the Cross: There is, I think, humor here which does not translate well from English into sanity.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 33

Thinking

“Harry Dresden: Kincaid! Bolshevik Muppet!”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Blood Rites (2004)

“Harry Dresden: Susan smiled at me, giving Molly the Female Once-Over--a process by which one woman creates a detailed profile of another woman based upon about a million subtle details of clothing, jewelry, makeup, and body type, and then decides how much of a social threat she might be. Men have a parallel process, but it's binary: Does he have beer? If yes, will he share with me?”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 9

Men , Smile , Beer , Clothes

“Harry Dresden: Hers was a beauty so pure that it was nearly painful to behold--Athena heading out on a Friday night.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 7

Pain , Beauty , Night

“Warden Chandler: PS--Why, yes, I can in fact capitalize any words I desire. The language is English. I am English. Therefore mine is the opinion which matters, colonial heathen.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 18

“Harry Dresden: As I pulled into the parking lot, I reflected that odds were that not a lot of clandestine meetings involving mystical assassination, theft of arcane power, and the balance of power in the realms of the supernatural had taken place in a Wal-Mart Super Center. But then again, maybe they had. Hell, for all I knew, the Mole Men used the changing rooms as a place to discuss plans for world domination with the Psychic Jellyfish from Planet X and the Disembodied Brains-in-a-Jar from the Klaatuu Nebula. I know I wouldn’t have looked for them there.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Summer Knight (2002), Chapter 18

Men , World , Hell , Change

“Harry Dresden: Santa is a much bigger and more powerful faery than Toot, and I don't know his true name anyway. You'd never see me trying to nab Saint Nick in a magic circle even if I did. I don't think anyone has stones that big.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Storm Front (2000), Chapter 6

Thinking

“Harry Dresden: I wouldn't burden any decent system of faith by participating in it.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Death Masks (2003), Chapter 7

Faith

“Harry Dresden: Sometimes the most remarkable things seem commonplace. I mean, when you think about it, jet travel is pretty freaking remarkable. You get in a plane, it defies the gravity of a entire planet by exploiting a loophole with air pressure, and it flies across distances that would take months or years to cross by any means of travel that has been significant for more than a century or three. You hurtle above the earth at enough speed to kill you instantly should you bump into something, and you can only breathe because someone built you a really good tin can that seems tight enough to hold in a decent amount of air. Hundreds of millions of man-hours of work and struggle and research, blood, sweat, tears and lives have gone into the history of air travel, and it has totally revolutionized the face of our planet and societies.
But get on any flight in the country, and I absolutely promise you that you will find someone who, in the face of all that incredible achievement, will be willing to complain about the drinks. The drinks, people. That was me on the staircase to Chicago-Over-Chicago. Yes, I was standing on nothing but congealed starlight. Yes, I was walking up through a savage storm, the wind threatening to tear me off and throw me into the freezing waters of lake Michigan far below. Yes, I was using a legendary and enchanted means of travel to transcend the border between one dimension and the next, and on my way to an epic struggle between ancient and elemental forces. But all I could think to say, between panting breaths, was, "Yeah. Sure. They couldn't possibly have made this an escalator."”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Summer Knight (2002)

People , Way , Travel , History

“Spelunking is dangerous enough without adding in anything that could be described with the word "ravening."”

Jim Butcher book Heorot

The Dresden Files short stories, Heorot

“Harry Dresden: Tonight you will be visited by three spirits, the ghosts of indictment past, present and future. They will teach you the true meaning of "you are still a scumbag criminal."”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, White Night (2007)

Past , Future

“Harry Dresden: Blood leaves no stain on a Warden's cloak.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Proven Guilty (2006), Chapter 1, Opening line

“Harry Dresden: The world is getting weirder. Darker every single day. Things are spinning around faster and faster, and threatening to go completely awry. Falcons and falconers. The center cannot hold. But in my corner of the country, I'm trying to nail things down. I don't want to live in Victor's jungle, even if it did eventually devour him. I don't want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. I'd rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges and where elves don't come swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their p's and q's. My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Storm Front (2000), Chapter 27, final lines of the book

Children , Books , World , Hell

“Harry Dresden: Keep in mind that this appears in the same book of the Bible that approves the death sentence for a child who curses his parents, owners of oxen who injure someone through the owner's negligence, anybody who works or kindles a fire on Sunday, and anyone who has sex with an animal.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, White Night (2007)

Death , Books , Sex , Parent

“Bridges are a troll's specialty. Whether because of some magic or just because of aptitude, you never get across the bridge without facing the troll. That's life, I guess.”

Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files short stories, Restoration of Faith

Life

“Harry Dresden: For future reference, I was sort of hoping for a suggestion that didn't sound like it came from that Bolshevik Muppet with all the dynamite.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Blood Rites (2004)

Hope , Future

“Harry Dresden: Discussing a problem with yourself is almost never a good way to secure a divergent viewpoint.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Ghost Story (2011), Chapter 21

Way , Problem

“Harry Dresden: You don't explain to the janitorial staff how your company is a part of a sinister organization with goals of global infiltration and control. You just tell them to clean the floor.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Changes (2010)

Parting

“Harry Dresden: It’s not my fault all women like motorcycles, Murph. They’re basically huge vibrators. With wheels.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Blood Rites (2004)

Women

“Johnny Marcone: Do you know what I think?
Harry Dresden: You think we should shoot Nicodemus in the back at the first opportunity and let Michael dismember him.
Marcone: Yes. I drew my gun.
Harry Dresden: Okay.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Death Masks (2003), Chapter 32

Thinking

“Harry Dresden: On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took as few as four people to make the planet too crowded to stand, and the first murder was a fratricide. Genesis says that in a fit of jealous rage, the very first child born to mortal parents, Cain, snapped and popped the first metaphorical cap in another human being. The attack was a bloody, brutal, violent, reprehensible killing. Cain's brother Abel probably never saw it coming. As I opened the door to my apartment, I was filled with a sense of empathic sympathy and intuitive understanding. For freaking Cain.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Dead Beat (2005), Chapter 1, opening lines

People , Understanding , Parent , Sense

“Marcone: In my judgment, my buildings are less likely to burn to the ground during one of your visits if you are disoriented from being treated like a sultan.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, White Night (2007)

“Harry Dresden: In McAnally's pub and grill, there aren't any service people. According to Mac, if you can't get up and walk over to pick up your own order, you don't need to be there at all.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Fool Moon (2001), Chapter 1

People

“Harry Dresden: Murphy had found a spot on the street, which made me wonder if she didn't have some kind of magical talent after all. Only some kind of precognitive ESP could have gotten us a parking space on the street, in the shadow of a building, with both of us in sight of the apartment building's entrance.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, White Night (2007)

“Harry Dresden: You can never tell how someone is going to handle power — not until you hand it to them and see what they do with it.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Proven Guilty (2006)

“Michael Carpenter: Lord, we walk into darkness now. Our enemies will surround us. Please help to make us strong enough to do what needs to be done. Amen.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Grave Peril (2001), Chapter 24

Strong , Help

“Queen Mab: For love men will mutilate themselves and murder rivals. For love will even a peaceful man go to war. For Love, man will destroy himself, and do so willingly.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 30

Love , Men , War , Peace

“Harry Dresden: Sometimes I hate having a conscience, and a stupidly thorough sense of honor.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Fool Moon (2001), Chapter 1

Hate , Sense

“Harry Dresden: This is Waldo Butters, and his geek penis is longer and harder than all of ours put together.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Turn Coat (2009), Chapter 49

“Harry Dresden: It's a place with a history, the neighbors are quiet, and my rent is cheap—though less so than it was before the demon thrashed my place.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Fool Moon (2001), Chapter 7

History

“Karrin Murphy: Yes, Your honor, your victim was killed by a werewolf.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Fool Moon (2001), Chapter 2

“Harry Dresden: The U. S. isn’t a perfect place, but it’s better than most people have managed to come up with. And all my stuff is there.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Turn Coat (2009), Chapter 28

People , Perfection

“Susan Rodriguez: Harry, have you ever heard of the paperless office?
Harry Dresden: Yeah. It's like Bigfoot. Someone says he knows someone who saw him, but you don't ever actually see him yourself.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 17

“Harry Dresden: We're all human. We're all of us equally naked before the jaws of pain.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, White Night (2007), Chapter 26

Pain

“Harry Dresden: Pretty sure that Roman Catholic priests don't have peeps. Too trendy and ephemeral. Like automobiles. And the printing press.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 14

“Harry Dresden: The freaking Council never does anything quickly, and I had a bad feeling that tempus was fugiting furiously.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 10

Feeling

“Harry Dresden: Tequila? Are you sure on that one? I thought the base for a love potion was supposed to be champagne.
Bob: Champagne, tequila, what's the difference, so long as it'll lower her inhibitions?
Harry Dresden: Uh, I'm thinking it's going to get us a, um, sleazier result.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Storm Front (2000), Chapter 8

Love , Thinking

“Listens-To-Wind "Injun Joe": There is world that should be, and the world that is. We live in one.
Ebenezer: And must create the other, if it is ever to be.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Turn Coat (2009)

World

“Harry Dresden: Paranoia is a survival trait when you run in my circles. It gives you something to do in your spare time, coming up with solutions to ridiculous problems that aren't ever going to happen. Except when one of them does, at which point you feel way too vindicated.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 33

Way , Feeling , Problem , Time

“Harry Dresden: Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another.”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

Source: The Dresden Files, White Night (2007), Chapter 31

Life , Pain , Music , Way

“He who kills the cheer springs for beer.”

Jim Butcher book Day Off

The Dresden Files short stories, Day Off

Spring , Beer