Top 500 Jim Butcher Quotes (2026 Update)
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451. “Let me be clear that I never offered House Astor an insult... Nor did I insult Reginald. I simply described him in accurate terms. If he finds himself insulted by the truth, it’s hardly my concern.”

— Jim Butcher

452. “You’d think as long as I was gambling with my soul, I would have thought to get Mab to throw in fifty bucks an hour plus expenses.”

— Jim Butcher

453. “Come with me if you want to live.”

— Jim Butcher

454. “Here’s something else I bet you didn’t know about Tyrannosaurs: they don’t corner well.”

— Jim Butcher

455. “I witnessed the birth of time itself. I watched the mortal coil spring forth from perfect darkness. I watched the stars form, watched this world coalesce, watched as life was breathed into it and as your kind rose to rule it.” She put both hands on the table and leaned toward me, her blue eyes cold and hard. “Thus far, I have behaved as a guest ought. But do not mistake propriety for weakness, mortal. I beg you not to oblige me to take further action.”

— Jim Butcher

456. “Thomas was an annoying wiseass who tended to make everyone he met want to kill him, and when I have that much in common with someone, I can’t help but like him a little.”

— Jim Butcher

457. “My answer came out at once. For me, chivalry isn’t dead; it’s an involuntary reflex. It could have been any woman asking for help, and I’d have said the same thing. It might have taken me a second or two longer, but I would have. For Elaine, there was no need to think about it for even that long. “I’ll help.”

— Jim Butcher

458. “Mister went to his spot before the fireplace and demanded that it be made warm.”

— Jim Butcher

459. “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

460. “You know how to use magic?” I asked. “I prefer calculus.”

— Jim Butcher

461. “Cowl’s apprentice was tough and competent, but no amount of training or forethought can prepare you for the sight of an angry dinosaur coming to eat your ass.”

— Jim Butcher

462. “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

463. “What do you do to make up for failing everyone in your life? How do you make it right? How do you apologize for hideous things you never intended to happen?”

— Jim Butcher

464. “It’s one hour. Just one little hour. What could happen in one hour?” And that’s how I knew that Mort was telling the whole truth when he said he wasn’t a hero. Heroes know better than to hand the universe lines like that.”

— Jim Butcher

465. “Hope lets you do things you would otherwise never be able to do, gives strength when everything is darkest. In.”

— Jim Butcher

466. “No one was standing in the shadows smoking a cigarette or looking about with a shifty-eyed gaze. I couldn’t see anyone quickly hiding a bloody knife behind his back or twirling a moustache, either. That ruled out the Dudley Do-Right approach to finding the killer.”

— Jim Butcher

467. “Your face looks like a sack of purple potatoes.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

469. “If the Eagle Scouts had some sort of Sith equivalent, Marcone was it.”

— Jim Butcher

470. “Life is too short, Harry. And there’s nowhere near enough joy in it. If you find it, grab it. Before it’s gone.”

— Jim Butcher

471. “Time, time,” Toot complained. “Is that all you mortals can ever think about? Everyone’s complaining about time! The whole city rushes left and right screaming about being late and honking horns! You people used to have it right, you know.”

— Jim Butcher

472. “For the good of the people, some must place themselves in harm’s way. Some must pledge their courage and their lives to protect the community.”

— Jim Butcher

473. “Thomas has the kind of whiter-than-white boyish grin that makes women’s panties spontaneously evaporate.”

— Jim Butcher

474. “Mathematically, maybe,” I said. “But trust isn’t one of those things that lends itself well to math.” “Sure it does,” Bob said. “You trust somebody, they betray you, you get a negative value. You never trust, they can never disappoint you, you break even.”

— Jim Butcher

475. “Anger subsides. Love doesn’t.”

— Jim Butcher

476. “Solution: Winchester.”

— Jim Butcher

477. “Well,” Antillus Raucus said. “There it is.” “Brilliant last words,” Phrygius said beside him. “We’ll put them on your memorium. Right next to, ‘He died stating the obvious.’ ” “Ah,” Lord Placida said. “It begins.” “See?” Phrygius said. “Sandos knows how to go out with style.” “You want to go out with style, I’ll strangle you with your best silk tunic,” growled Antillus.”

— Jim Butcher

478. “In the action business, when you don’t want to say you ran like a mouse, you call it ‘taking cover.’ It’s more heroic.”

— Jim Butcher

479. “Seedy wasn’t a fair description for the place, because seeds imply eventual regrowth and renewal.”

— Jim Butcher

480. “I’ve always admired your ability to make jokes when faced with adversity.”

— Jim Butcher

481. “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.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

483. “And besides, she was curious. She had questions. And answering questions was very nearly always more important than caution.”

— Jim Butcher

484. “I put the ick in magic.”

— Jim Butcher

485. “Honey, I liked the Harry Potter movies, too, but that doesn’t mean I ran out and got a Dark Mark tattooed onto my left forearm like you did.”

— Jim Butcher

486. “I’ve had worse,” Michael said, his voice strained. He shifted his weight, testing the leg, and made a hissing sound – but it supported his weight. “Only a flesh wound.” “Yeah,” I said. “’Tis but a scratch. Come on, ya pansy.” He blinked and looked at me. “Pansy?” “Oh,” I said. “You weren’t quoting the movie. Sorry.” “Movie?” “Holy Grail?” “Nicodemus still has it.” I sighed. “Never mind.”

— Jim Butcher

487. “I enjoyed activities and the company of friends. But they were a side dish.”

— Jim Butcher

488. “Predator is not property,” Grimm said in a calm, level tone. “She is not my possession. She is my home. Her crew are not my employees. They are my family. And if you threaten to take my home and destroy the livelihood of my family again, Commodore, I will be inclined to kill you where you stand.”

— Jim Butcher

489. “I swear to you, by my own stunning good looks and towering ego, that I am not lying to you.”

— Jim Butcher

490. “It’s only paranoia if I’m wrong. – Harry Dresden.”

— Jim Butcher

491. “I felt my face stretch in a victorious smile. The potion had worked. I was inside. I had to suppress an urge to break into a soft shoe routine. Sometimes being able to use magic was so cool.”

— Jim Butcher

492. “Truth does not become untruth simply because its existence upsets the scion of a High House.”

— Jim Butcher

493. “The Legions have a long tradition, boys. You march hard and fast and show up in places where no one expects you – and then you go to work.” He grinned. “And you do it all carrying a hundred pounds of gear made by whoever did it for the least coin – but every one of those slives gets paid better than you! It’s tradition!”

— Jim Butcher

494. “Life?” I suggested. She shrugged. “Desire. Loneliness. Joy. Pain.” “Life,” I said.”

— Jim Butcher

495. “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

496. “I trust you,” she said. Three words. Big ones. Especially coming from her.”

— Jim Butcher

497. “If you want to live, if you want your friends and family to live, I expect you to do more than survive it,” Mab said, sweeping out. “I expect you to skin them alive.”

— Jim Butcher

498. “If Gabriel is an ambassador, if Michael is a general, if Rafael is a healer and spiritual champion, then Uriel is a spymaster – Heaven’s spook.”

— Jim Butcher

499. “Now that I’ve got this to keep me safe off the island,” I said very quietly, “what’s to stop me from having Alfred drop you into a cell right this second, and solving my problems myself?” “I am,” Mab said. She gave me a very small, very chill smile, and held up her finger. There was a tiny droplet of my blood upon it, scarlet against her pale skin.”

— Jim Butcher

500. “Shame, child, is for those who fail to live up to the ideal of what they believe they should be.”

— Jim Butcher