Top 500 Jim Butcher Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “He shook his head. “Love killed the dinosaurs, man.”

— Jim Butcher

302. “A pure heart and mind only takes you so far – sooner or later the hormones have their say, too.”

— Jim Butcher

303. “A stuffed animal, man!” I roared at him. “Don’t mess with a wizard when he’s wizarding!”

— Jim Butcher

304. “Make things right?” I asked. “Where did you learn that one?” “From Mr. Carpenter,” she said. “He says making things right is the first and last thing you should do every day. And that it’s what you always try to do.”

— Jim Butcher

305. “She held up her hand, palm up – another one of those gestures, their meanings forgotten by everyone except for long-term wackjobs like Dresden.”

— Jim Butcher

306. “Raw power doesn’t determine all that you can do with magic. Focus matters, too. The better your focus is, the better you are at putting your power in one place at the same time, the more you can get done.”

— Jim Butcher

307. “Hell’s bells, irony blows.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

309. “Here had lived someone else who knew that the only thing waiting at home was a sense of loneliness. Sometimes it is comforting. Most often, it isn’t.”

— Jim Butcher

310. “Investigate the faeries. Great. That was absolutely guaranteed to get complicated before I got any useful answers. If there was one thing faeries hated doing, it was giving you a straight answer, about anything. Getting plain speech out out of one is like pulling out teeth. Your own teeth. Through your nose.”

— Jim Butcher

311. “Uh,” I said, feeling somewhat off balance. “What do I think of gay guys?” “Yes.” “Boink and let boink, more or less.”

— Jim Butcher

312. “All right, you primitive screwheads. Listen up. I’m Harry Dresden. I’m the new Winter Knight.”

— Jim Butcher

313. “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

314. “Everyone,” she said, “thinks that hate and love are somehow opposite forces. They are not. They are the same force, facing opposite directions.” She glanced aside at me. “Love is a fire, my Knight. Love turned the wrong way has killed as many as hate. Reason, young wizard, is the opposite of hate, not love.”

— Jim Butcher

315. “Octokongs,” I pronounced grimly. “Why did it have to be octokongs?”

— Jim Butcher

316. “So. You get handed a holy sword by an archangel, told to go fight the forces of evil, and you somehow remain an atheist. Is that what you’re saying?”

— Jim Butcher

317. “I’d hate to find out that the universe really wasn’t conspiring against me. It would jerk the rug out from under my persecution complex.”

— Jim Butcher

318. “Pain is there to tell us when we’ve done something badly – it’s a teacher, a guide, one that is always there to both warn us of our limitations and challenge us to overcome them.”

— Jim Butcher

319. “You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me.”

— Jim Butcher

320. “Death isn’t something anyone likes to think about, but the fact is that you can’t get out of it. No matter what you do, how much you exercise, how religiously you diet, or meditate, or pray, or how much money you donate to your church, there is a single hard, cold fact that faces everyone on earth: One day it’s going to be over. One day the sun will rise, the world will turn, people will go about their daily routines – only you won’t be in it. You’ll be still. And cold.”

— Jim Butcher

321. “The past was gone. Nothing could change what had already been. Looking back at it, letting its wounds fester, indulging in regret was just a different, slower way to die. The living moved forward.”

— Jim Butcher

322. “I could taste the blood in my mouth, from where I had bitten into my tongue, and I either had to spit or swallow. I swallowed. No comments, please.”

— Jim Butcher

323. “I have a monster under my bed, and it’s Mouse.”

— Jim Butcher

324. “Does it hurt to be as suave as you, boss?” “It’s agonizing.” “Looks it.”

— Jim Butcher

325. “Now I feel like James Bond. Suave and intelligent, breaking all the codes while looking fabulous.”

— Jim Butcher

326. “He gave me an inscrutable look that said maybe he would and maybe he wouldn’t. Mister was a cat, and cats generally considered it the obligation of the universe to provide shelter, sustenance, and amusement as required. I think Mister considered it beneath his dignity to plan for the future.”

— Jim Butcher

327. “The vampire’s true appearance was grotesque – but it wasn’t as bad as some of the things I had seen in my day. Some demons were a lot worse, and some of the Elder Things could rip your mind apart just by letting you look at them.”

— Jim Butcher

328. “Children run everywhere for a reason – it’s fun. Grown-ups can forget that sometimes.”

— Jim Butcher

329. “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

330. “Marcone’s scum, but he’s his own scum” -Harry Dresden.”

— Jim Butcher

331. “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

332. “Fear and anger always come hand in hand. Anger is my hiding place from fear, my shield and my sword against it.”

— Jim Butcher

333. “The cold rain came down in buckets. I was shaking, shivering, and naked, and more soap was getting into my eyes. But hey. At least I was clean.”

— Jim Butcher

334. “Let’s sum up: an unknown number of enemies with unknown capabilities, supported by a gang of madmen, packs of attack animals, and superhumanly intelligent pocket change.”

— Jim Butcher

335. “Mab narrowed her eyes, and a little smile graced her lips. “Impudent,” she said. “It’s sweet on you.”

— Jim Butcher

336. “I love being a wizard. Every day is like Disneyland.”

— Jim Butcher

337. “Monsters are born of pain and grief and loss and anger. Your heart is full of them.”

— Jim Butcher

338. “They were donuts of darkness.”

— Jim Butcher

339. “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

340. “The freaking Leanansidhe, deputy of Her Wickedness, with her Nietzsche and Darwin Were Sentimental Pansies outlook on life.”

— Jim Butcher

341. “See? This is why I’m not religious. I couldn’t possibly keep my mouth shut long enough to get along with everyone else.”

— Jim Butcher

342. “It was one of those moments that would have had dramatic music if my life were a movie, but instead I got a radio jingle for some kind of submarine sandwich place blaring over the store’s ambient stereo. The movie of my life must be really low-budget.”

— Jim Butcher

343. “I may have had good reasons. I may have had the best of intentions. But intentions aren’t enough, no matter how good they are. Intentions can lead you to a place where you’re able to make a choice. It’s the choice that counts.”

— Jim Butcher

344. “Magic came from life itself, from the interaction of nature and the elements, from the energy of all living beings, and especially of people.”

— Jim Butcher

345. “People who ask questions and think about their faith are the last ones to embrace dogma – and the last to abandon their path once they’ve set out on it. I felt fairly sure that the Almighty, whatever name tag He had on at the moment, could handle a few questions from people sincerely looking for answers. Hell, He might even like it.”

— Jim Butcher

346. “Rowl reminded himself that cats were eternally patient, and that he would not simply explode if he did not fling himself from Littlemouse’s arms and go exploring. Which was not to say that he could not do so if he wished, because cats were also their own masters. He decided that his patience was practically legendary- which was fortunate...”

— Jim Butcher

347. “Time after time, history demonstrates that when people don’t want to believe something, they have enormous skills of ignoring it altogether.”

— Jim Butcher

348. “Murphy nodded, frowning at the road ahead of her. “The reason treachery is so reveiled,” she said in a careful tone of voice, “is because it usually comes from someone you didn’t think could possibly do such a thing.”

— Jim Butcher

349. “It’s dark, close, cold, and intensely creepy down there. The fact that it was inhabited by things that had no love for mankind and potential radioactivity to boot didn’t do much to boost its tourism industry.”

— Jim Butcher

350. “Children have their own kind of power. When you’re teaching them, protecting them, you are more than you thought you could be. More understanding, more patient, more capable, more wise.”

— Jim Butcher