Jim Butcher Quotes & Sayings

Life can be confusing. Good God, and how. Sometimes it seems like the older I get, the more confused I become. That seems ass-backwards. I thought I was supposed to be getting wiser. Instead, I just keep getting hit over the head with my relative insignificance in the greater scheme of the universe. Confusing, life. But it beats the hell out of the alternative. — Jim Butcher

Michael titled his head. "But . . . Uriel, if I were to misuse it . . ." "I would Fall," Uriel said quietly. I choked on the air. Holy crap. The last time an archangel Fell, I'm pretty sure there were extended consequences. — Jim Butcher

Molly was committing dinner by that time, aided and abetted by Sanya, who seemed to take some kind of grim Russian delight in watching train wrecks in progress. — Jim Butcher

The human mind isn't a terribly logical or consistent place. Most people, given the choice to face a hideous or terrifying truth or to conveniently avoid it, choose the convenience and peace of normality. That doesn't make them strong or weak people, or good or bad people. It just makes them people. — Jim Butcher

I work in grand halls and bedchambers with wine and perfume. Not in dark alleyways with cloaks and knives. I don't like knives. I don't even own a knife. And my cloaks are far too expensive to risk bloodying. — Jim Butcher

There had to be something I could do. Had to be. There had to be. — Jim Butcher

There is but one reality; that is true - but the two of you experience it in slightly different ways. The older you get, I should think, the more you will come to understand that the universe is very much a looking glass. — Jim Butcher

Her flawless pale skin was also spangled with gemstones. I don't know how they'd been attached, but they clung to her and sent little flashes of color glittering around the cavern when she moved. They were concentrated most densely around her ... well ... She'd been, ah, vajazzled. — Jim Butcher

Beer is an excellent argument that there is a God, and that furthermore, He wants us to be happy. — Jim Butcher

Here's something else I bet you didn't know about Tyrannosaurs: they don't corner well. — Jim Butcher

I felt like I had just double-tapped Santa. — Jim Butcher

When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching
they are your family. — Jim Butcher

Murphy watched me thoughtfully for several empty seconds. Then she said, very gently, "You're a good man, Harry."
I swallowed and bowed my head, made humble by the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, more than the words themselves.
Not always rational," she said, smiling. "But you're the best kind of crazy. — Jim Butcher

Every jungle creature for fifty or sixty yards started raising holy hell on the what-the-fuck-was-that party line. — Jim Butcher

The world always thinks that the destruction of a physical vessel is victory," he said quietly. "But the Savior was more than merely cells and tissue and chemical compounds - and Fidelacchius is more than wood and steel. — Jim Butcher

Give it to 'em!" Take 'em down!" First Aleran!" Kick their furry
" Assault formation! — Jim Butcher

All things pass in time. We are far less significant than we imagine ourselves to be. All that we are, all that we have wrought, is but a shadow, no matter how durable it may seem. One day, when the last man has breathed his last breath, the sun will shine, the mountains will stand, the rain will fall, the streams will whisper - and they will not miss him. — Jim Butcher

She bowed her head and said, "Lord of hosts, please stand with us against this darkness." The quiet, bedrock-deep energy of true faith brushed against me.
Murphy echoed the gesture and the amen. Thomas and I tried to look theologically invisible. — Jim Butcher

And may the crows feast on the unjust. — Jim Butcher

I nodded to her. Then I eyed Maeve. "What about you? Holding anything back?"
"I want to take you to my bower, wizard," Maeve said, and licked her lips. "I want to do things to you that give you such pleasure your brain bleeds."
"Uh," I said.
Her foxlike smile sharpened. "Also," she said, "my people are about to attempt to kill you. — Jim Butcher

A house doesn't make a home. When the place has got history, family, emotions, worries, joys worked into the wood, that's when it gets a solid threshold. — Jim Butcher

Maybe the Merlin was right. Maybe its better to look stupid but strong, than it is to look smart but weak, I don't know. I'm not sure I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school. — Jim Butcher

People have far more power than they realize, if they would only choose to use it. — Jim Butcher

Bernard had become, not so much important to her as he was natural to her whole being. He was as much a part of her thoughts as breath, food, and sleep. At once present and not present, conspicuous with his absence and filling her with a sense of completion when he was there. — Jim Butcher

Jump into an open grave? What kind of idiot are you?" Butters replied. "I might as well put on a red shirt and volunteer for the away team. There's snow and ice and slippery mud down there. That's like asking for an ironically broken neck. — Jim Butcher

I tried to take that as a life lesson: never underestimate the little people. — Jim Butcher

A human of significantly less clumsiness than most came aboard, a small male, and despite its diminutive stature, it moved with a warrior's confidence and wore a very large and fine hat. Such hats often signified humans who considered themselves important, which was adorable for the first few moments and trying ever after. — Jim Butcher

The Stone Table [was] a place that served as the OK Corral for the Faerie Courts when they decided to engage in diplomacy by means of murdering anyone on the other team. — Jim Butcher

You know, I believe it is possible to reference something other than Star Wars, boss." I narrowed my eyes in Muppetly wisdom. "That is why you fail. — Jim Butcher

Mister Hendricks [was] manning a rotating-barreled minigun fixed to the deck of the helicopter
completely illegally, of course.
But then, I suppose that's really one major advantage to working with criminals. They just don't care about that sort of thing. — Jim Butcher

Black Court vampires. I just shortened it some."
Ebenezar tsked. "Blampires. That's the problem with you young people. Shortening all the words. — Jim Butcher

It was worse than murder. It was twisted, wretched perversion, as though someone had bludgeoned another person to death with a Botticelli, turned something of beauty to an act of utter destruction. — Jim Butcher

Dresden," she said, "I cannot stress to you enough how vital it is that we avoid general hostilities, even with a relatively small power." Translation: Don't start another war, Harry. "But," she continued, "we can afford to lose the paths through Winter even less." Translation: Unless you really have to. — Jim Butcher

You want to play head games?" Molly snarled, her blue eyes blazing. "Let's go. — Jim Butcher

I ask people impertinent questions. Hopefully turning up pertinent answers. — Jim Butcher

As far as the Council is concerned, the U.S. Wardens are a bunch of mushrooms."
"Eh?"
"Kept in the dark and fed on bullshit. — Jim Butcher

Ah," Bridget said, flushing slightly. As the glib-tongued lout in question, she was currently on the receiving end of this facet of the habble's law. "I'm not sure everyone would agree with you. We're a civilized society, are we not?" Esterbrook blinked. "Since when, miss? We're a democracy. — Jim Butcher

Everyone thinks magic is something different. — Jim Butcher

It's what you do with the want that matters. — Jim Butcher

Honestly. He sometimes felt that humans simply had to be deliberately obtuse. What was so difficult about understanding civilized and excellently enunciated speech? — Jim Butcher

There was a ticking time bomb inside my head and the one person I trusted to go in and get it out hadn't shown up or spoken to me for more than a year. — Jim Butcher

Got to die of something," Giraldi observed. "Might as well put back a few pints while you wait to see what it is. — Jim Butcher

People love dogs. You can never go wrong adding a dog to the story. — Jim Butcher

There were guns on the coffee table. Like, a lot of them, broken out on cloths, being cleaned, leaned against a nearby chair, where a large equipment bag waited to receive them. Karrin's favorite little Belgian carbine was there, along with what looked like a couple of space guns. "New toys?" I asked.
"I'm a girl, Harry," she said, rather smugly. "I accessorize."
"Is that a bazooka?"
"No," she said. "That is an AT4 rocket launcher. Way better than a bazooka."
"In case we have to hunt dinosaurs?" I asked.
"The right took for the right job," she answered.
"Can I play with it? — Jim Butcher

That...that bitch. — Jim Butcher

Magic came from life itself, from the interaction of nature and the elements, from the energy of all living beings, and especially of people. A man's magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power. — Jim Butcher

You never get a straight answer from captains. You should know that by now. — Jim Butcher

Murphy, you rock! Go team Dresden!"
"Hey, I'm the one who rocks ... Go team Murphy. — Jim Butcher

Her fate was, she realized, entirely in the hands of another person. Captain — Jim Butcher

Thomas barked out a laugh. "There are seven of us against the Red King and his thirteen most powerful nobles, and it's going well?"
Mouse sneezed.
"Eight," Thomas corrected himself. He rolled his eyes and said, "And the psycho death faerie makes it nine."
"It is like movie," Sanya said, nodding. "Dibs on Legolas. — Jim Butcher

Because your balls are in a vise and I'm the only one who can pull them out," I said. He arched an elegant silver eyebrow. "Okay," I said. "That came out a little more homoerotic than I intended." "Indeed," said the Merlin. — Jim Butcher

The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, he said, and turned for the door. — Jim Butcher

You're a cop. I need a doughnut. — Jim Butcher

From the pain of our failures we learn to be better, stronger, greater than what we were before. — Jim Butcher

It doesn't take much power to hurt someone," she said. "It's far easier than healing the damage. — Jim Butcher

It's all right to be afraid. You just don't let it stop you from doing your job. — Jim Butcher

the beginning of wisdom is in realizing that one knows nothing, then the beginning of understanding is in realizing that all things exist in accord with a single truth: Large things are made of smaller things. Drops — Jim Butcher

I know I've screwed up," I said. "I'm going to have to live with that. But I don't want to lose you. — Jim Butcher

Everything I told him was technically true, more or less, and I got the job done," Jack said stubbornly. "Look, sir, if I were perfect, I wouldn't be working here in the first place. Now, would I?"
And then he hung up. On speakerphone. On a freaking archangel.
I couldn't help it. I let out a rolling belly laugh. "I just got suckered into doing this by ... Stars and stones, you didn't even know that he ... Big bad angel boy, and you get the wool pulled over your eyes by ... " I stopped trying to talk and just laughed.
Uriel eyed the phone, then me, and then tucked the little device away again, clearly nonplussed. "It doesn't matter how well I believe I know your kind, Harry. They always manage to find some way to try my patience. — Jim Butcher

It must be tempered with discipline. Ferocity is useless unless employed in the proper place ... — Jim Butcher

I found him in a Dumpster one day when he was a kitten and he promptly adopted me. Despite my struggles, Mister had been an understanding soul, and I eventually came to realize that I was a part of his little family, and by his gracious consent was allowed to remain in his apartment. Cats. Go figure. — Jim Butcher

Nice father figure. Him and Bill Cosby. — Jim Butcher

I pressed past the outer branches of the lilacs and found a small and relatively open space in the middle. Then I waited. — Jim Butcher

It is the nature of the universe that things remain. Nothing ever disappears completely. The very sound of Creation still echoes throughout the vast darkness: The universe remembers. — Jim Butcher

Better safe than exsanguinated. — Jim Butcher

It was a well-known fact that humans became more addled than usual when running in herds. — Jim Butcher

My head was throbbing, and my hands were shaking, but I went down the ladder to my workroom - and started figuring out how to rip someone's heart out of his chest from fifty miles away.
Who says I never do anything fun on a Friday night? — Jim Butcher

Thomas came last, buckling on his gun belt, which was currently hung with his ridiculously huge Desert Eagle, just in case we were attacked by a rabid Cape buffalo. — Jim Butcher

The heart of democracy is violence, Miss Tagwynn," Esterbrook said. "In order to decide what to do, we take a count of everyone for and against it, and then do whatever the larger side wishes to do. We're having a symbolic battle, its outcome decided by simple numbers. It saves us time and no end of trouble counting actual bodies - but don't mistake it for anything but ritualized violence. And every few years, if the person we elected doesn't do the job we wanted, we vote him out of office - we symbolically behead him and replace him with someone else. Again, without the actual pain and bloodshed, but acting out the ritual of violence nonetheless. It's actually a very practical way of getting things done. — Jim Butcher

Love this job," Sanya murmured. "Just love it."
"I need to challenge more people to duels," Thomas said in agreement.
"Men are pigs," Murphy said.
"Amen," said Molly.
Lea gave me a prim look and said, "I've not sacrificed a holy virgin in ages. — Jim Butcher

Body or mind, heart or soul, we're all human, and we're supposed to feel pain. You cut yourself off from it at your own risk. — Jim Butcher

So I, uh, sort of threw myself out of the passenger seat of a moving car. Don't look at me like that. I'm telling you, it made sense at the time. — Jim Butcher

purple is my favorite color that isn't black, and — Jim Butcher

Ah. Medieval-style ransom."
Toot looked confused. "He did run some, but I stopped him, my lord. Like, just now. In front of you. Right over there."
There were several conspicuous sounds behind me, the loudest from my apprentice, and I turned to eye everyone else. They were all either covering smiles or holding them back - poorly. "Hey, peanut gallery," I said. "This isn't as easy as I'm making it look."
"You're doing fine," Karrin said, her eyes twinkling.
I sighed.
"Come on, Toot," I said, and walked over to Hook. — Jim Butcher

These creatures have destroyed our lands. Murdered our people." Isana lifted her chin. "Pay them for it."
When Antillus Raucus looked up, his eyes were hard, cold, and clear. "Watch me. — Jim Butcher

One time, when we'd been discussing martial arts, Murphy told me that eventually, no-one can teach you anything more about them. Once you reach that state of knowledge, the only way to keep learning and increasing your own skill is to teach what you know to others. That's why she teaches a children's class and a rape-defence course every spring and fall at one of her neighbourhood's community centres.
It sounded kind of flaky-Zen to me at the time, but Hell's bells, she'd been right. Once upon a time, it would have taken me an hour, if not more, to attain the proper frame of mind. In the course of teaching Molly to meditate, though, I had found myself going over the basics again for the first time in years, and understanding them with a deeper and richer perspective than I'd had when I was her age. I'd been getting almost as much insight and new understanding of my knowledge from teaching Molly as she'd been learning from me. — Jim Butcher

And thrice do I say to thee...bite me. — Jim Butcher

It's boring."
"Oh," I said. I rubbed at my jaw. "You think I should have gone four-color?"
Bob stared at me for a second and said, "I have nightmares about Hell, where all I do is add up numbers and try to have conversations with people like you."
I glowered up at the skull and nodded. "Okay, fine. You think it needs more drama."
"More anything. Drama would do. Or breasts."
I sighed and saw where that line of thought was going. "I am not going to hire a leggy secretary, Bob. Get over it."
"I didn't say anything about legs. But as long as we're on the subject ... — Jim Butcher

She was also mad. Loopy as a crochet convention. — Jim Butcher

Then I drew in a breath, and my renewed will with it, lifted the rod in my right hand, murmured a phrase in a language I didn't know, and blew the tires off his fucking truck. — Jim Butcher

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

You can have your harem change out the bandages later," I said. "How busy are you today?" "Oh," he mused. "I don't know. I mean, I've got to get a new shirt now." "After that," I asked, "would you like to help me save the city? If you don't already have plans." He snorted. "You mean, would I like to follow you around, wondering what the hell is going on because you won't tell me everything, then get in a fight with something that is going to leave me in intensive care?" "Uh-huh," I said, nodding, "pretty much." "Yeah," he said. "Okay. — Jim Butcher

I hurled my fear and my loneliness, my love and my respect, my rage and my pain. I made of my thoughts a hammer, infused with the fires of creation and tempered in the icy power of the darkest guardian the earth had ever known. — Jim Butcher

EASTER HAS BEEN CANCELED - THEY FOUND THE BODY — Jim Butcher

We wizards are terrific at brooding. — Jim Butcher

Finish that sentence, Raith, and we throw down, said Murphy in a calm, level voice. — Jim Butcher

Just like credit card companies, or those student loan people. Now there's evil for you. — Jim Butcher

Laughter, like love, has power to survive the worst things life has to offer. And to do it with style. — Jim Butcher

Her look dared me to make some kind of chivalrous commentary. I didn't, and she didn't break my nose, by way of fair exchange. — Jim Butcher

This is Waldo Butters, and his geek penis is longer and harder than any of ours put together. — Jim Butcher

And from the perspective of those in need, that extra quarter of a million bucks your material person spent on the prestige addition for his house looks like an awful lot of lifesaving food and medicine that could have existed if the jerk with the big house in the suburbs hadn't blown it all to artificially inflate his sociogeographic penis. — Jim Butcher

Most of the bad guys in the real world don't know that they are bad guys. You don't get a flashing warning sign that you're about to damn yourself. It sneaks up on you when you aren't looking. — Jim Butcher

What should I do?" Uriel asked. "Sit," I said. "Stay inside. Don't put pennies in the outlets or play with matches or run with scissors. — Jim Butcher

And since when had I become the guy that things happened to ten years ago? — Jim Butcher

That woman," Grimm said quietly, "drives me quite insane."
Kettle grunted. "Why'd you marry her, then? — Jim Butcher

Good man always stands against that. — Jim Butcher

I kept a straight face while my inner Neanderthal spluttered and then went on a mental rampage through a hypothetical produce section, knocking over shelves and spattering fruit everywhere in sheer frustration, screaming, 'JUST TELL ME WHOSE SKULL TO CRACK WITH MY CLUB, DAMMIT! — Jim Butcher

Heroines in dramas, Bridget felt, really ought to have more sense. — Jim Butcher

Make the mistakes of youth is no crime, but not to learn from them is. — Jim Butcher

Discretion is the better part of not getting exsanguinated. — Jim Butcher