Jim Butcher

“If 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 of ink are shaped into letters, letters form words, words form sentences, and sentences combine to express thought. So it is with the growth of plants that spring from seeds, as well as with walls built from many stones. So it is with mankind, as the customs and traditions of our progenitors blend together to form the foundation for our own cities, history, and way of life. Be they dead stone, living flesh, or rolling sea; be they idle times or events of world-shattering proportion, market days or desperate battles, to this law, all things hold: Large things are made from small things. Significance is cumulative--but not always obvious. --Gaius Secondus”

“Caring about someone isn't complicated. It isn't easy. But it isn't complicated, either. Kinda like lifting the engine block out of a car.”

“Sleep is God. Go worship.”

“Son. Everyone dies alone. That's what it is. It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone. But it doesn't mean you've got to be alone before you go through the door. And believe me, you aren't alone on the other side.”

“I parked in front of the Field Museum under a NO PARKING sign. There were a couple of actual spots I could have used, but the drive was even closer. Besides, I found it aesthetically satisfying to defy municipal code.”

“I mean, we're all going to die. We know that on an intellectual level. We figure it out when we're still fairly young, and it scares us so badly that we convince ourselves we're immortal for more than a decade afterwards.”

“There is the world that should be and the world that is. We live in one and must create the other.”

“Billy squinted at me. "Why are you letting them go?""Because they're real.""How do you know?""The one I was holding crapped on my hand.”

“Mister Dresden," he said. "And Miss Rodriguez, I believe. I didn't realize you were an art collector." "I am the foremost collector of velvet Elvii in the city of Chicago," I said at once. "Elvii?" Marcone inquired. "The plural could be Elvises, I guess," I said. "But if I say that too often, I start muttering to myself and calling things 'my precious,' so I usually go with the Latin plural.”

“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but Chinese throwing stars get you a dozen stitches.”

“Holy shit," I breathed. "Hellhounds.""Harry," Michael said sternly. "You know I hate it when you swear.""You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed, "heckhounds.”

“Hello Angel,'Michael rumbled, and leaned over to give the woman a kiss on the cheek. She accepted it with all the loving tolerance of a Komodo dragon. 'Don't you hello angel me. Do you know what I had to go through to find a baby-sitter, get all the way out here, get the money together and then get the sword back for you?”

“I've done smarter things in my life. Once, for example, I threw myself out of a moving car in order to take on a truckload of lycanthropes singlehandedly."~Harry Dresden”

“I followed him through the halls of the enormous church until we got to the staff's kitchen. He went to the fridge, opened it, and came out with a bottle of bourbon. He poured some into a coffee cup, drank it down, and poured some more. He offered me the bottle.No, thanks. Aren't you supposed to drink vodka?Aren't you supposed to wear a pointy hat and ride on a flying broomstick?Touche, I said.”

“She studied my face for a long minute. "Are you going to help my mom?" It was a simple question. But how do you tell a child that things just aren't that simple, that some questions don't have simple answers--or any answer at all?”

“The human mind is not a terribly logical or consistent place.”

“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.”

“I've always admired your ability to be unilaterally irritating.”

“There are bad things in the world. There's no getting away from that. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done about them. You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because sometimes you get hurt. ”

“Rain was coming down in sheets. I could hear it, on the concrete outside and on the old building above me. It creaked and swayed in the spring thunderstorm and the wind, timbers gently flexing, wise enough with age to give a little, rather than put up stubborn resistance until they broke. I could probably stand to learn something from that.”

“Magic comes from what is inside you. It is a part of you. You can't weave together a spell that you don't beleive in.”

“Just like credit card companies, or those student loan people. Now there's evil for you.”

“Wait. You don't understand. I just wanted it to stop. Wanted the hurting to stop."I smoothed a bloodied lock of hair from her eyes and felt very tired as I said, "The only people who never hurt are dead."The light died out of her eyes, her breath slowing. She whispered, barely audible, "I don't understand."I answered, "I don't either."A tear slid from her eye and mixed with the blood.Then she died.”

“Well, I never been to much school, you understand, but it seems to me that you're assuming something you shouldn't assume... that God sees the world like you do; one thing at a time, from just one spot. Seems to me that he's supposed to be everywhere, know everything. ...Think about that; he knows what you're feeling, how you're hurting. Feels my pain, your pain like it was his own. Hell son, the question isn't how God could care about just one person; question is, how could he not?”

“We've both got into the blue beetle. He got into the red door, I got into the white one.”

“This is what it look like when it WORKS?”

“Give it to 'em!"Take 'em down!"First Aleran!"Kick their furry--"Assault formation!”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“No story that juicy was going to stay secret for long.”

“I've never lost a duel to the death. Not one.”

“If you shoot, I will kill her before I die."Yes," Kitai said in a patient tone. "Which is why I have not shot you. Yet.”

“You never get a straight answer from captains. You should know that by now.”

“Tavi grinned. "Are you with me?""The plan is insane," Ehren said. "YOU are insane." He looked around the inside of the tent. "I'll need some pants.”

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

“An inferior sense of smell," Marcus said, as if absolutely nothing of significance had happened, "is distinct from being told that one smells unpleasant.”

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

“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.”

“So in addition to a feisty new Black Court partner in the war dance between the Council and the Vampire Courts, I also got angry lust bunny movies stars, deadly curses, and a thoroughly embarrassing job as my investigative cover.Oh, and bean curd pizza, which is just wrong.What a mess.I made a mental note: The next time I saw Thomas, I was going to punch him right in the nose.”

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

“We're always disappointed when we find out someone else has human limits, the same as we do. It's stupid for us to feel that way, and we really ought to know better, but that doesn't seem to slow us down.”

“wherever you go, there you are”

“I don't have anything against God. Far from it. But I don't understand Him. And I don't trust a lot of the people that go around claiming that they're working in His best interests. Faeries and vampires and whatnot -- those I can fathom. Even demons. Sometimes, even the Fallen. I can understand why they do what they do. But I don't understand God. I don't understand how he could see the way people treat one another, and not chalk up the whole human race as a bad idea”

“Even in winter, the cold isn't always bitter, and not every day is cruel.”

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of trauma, I will fear no concussion.”

“If you can't stop the bad thoughts from coming to visit, at least you can make fun of them while they're hanging around.”

“As in 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'?" The skull howled with laughter. "You just got your ass handed to you by a nursery tale?""I wouldn't say they handed me my ass," I said.Bob was nearly strangling on his laughter, and given that he had no lungs it seemed gratuitous somehow. "That's because you can't see yourself," he choked out. "Your nose is all swollen up and you've got two black eyes. You look like a raccoon. Holding a dislocated ass.”

“Think of every fairy-tale villainess you've ever heard of. Think of the wicked witches, the evil queens, the mad enchantresses. Think of the alluring sirens, the hungry ogresses, the savage she-beasts. Think of them and remember that somewhere, sometime, they've all been real.Mab gave them lessons.”

“Please, help me. Young werewolves in love. I turned to walk into the house, moving carefully.I had never much believed in God. Well, that's not quite true. I believed that there was a God, or something close enough to it to warrant the name if there were demons, there had to be angels, right? If there was a Devil, somewhere, there had to be a God. But He & I had never really seen things in quite the same terms.All the same. I flashed a look up at the ceiling. I didn't say or think any words, but if God was listening, I hoped he got the message nonetheless. I didn't want of these children getting themselves killed.”