Top 500 Jim Butcher Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 9 of 10

401. “Yeah, they look great, but that isn’t a fantasy come true, Harry. That’s a wood chipper in Playboy bunny clothing.”

— Jim Butcher

402. “Intentions count for far less than the consequences of the actions born from them.”

— Jim Butcher

403. “Maybe my values are outdated, but I come from an old school of thought. I think that men ought to treat women like something other than just shorter, weaker men with breasts.”

— Jim Butcher

404. “I’d been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it’s sort of depressing, thinking how many times I’d been in them. But if experience had taught me anything, it was this: No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse.”

— Jim Butcher

405. “It was like a fire in my thoughts, my concentration, burning ever more brightly, more pure, refining my anger, my hate, into something steel-hard, steel-sharp. I could feel it burning, and reached for it eagerly, shoving the pain inside to fuel my incandescent anger.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

407. “Maybe my values are outdated, but I come from an old school of thought. I think that men ought to treat women like something other than just shorter, weaker men with breasts. Try and convict me if I’m a bad person for thinking so. I enjoy treating a woman like a lady, opening doors for her, paying for shared meals, giving flowers–all that sort of thing.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

409. “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

410. “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

411. “I’d fallen victim to one of the other classic blunders, along with not getting involved in a land war in Asia and never going in against a Sicilian when death was on the line.”

— Jim Butcher

412. “In for a sheep, in for a gargant.”

— Jim Butcher

413. “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.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

415. “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

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

— Jim Butcher

417. “He had hard, steady eyes, and all the comforting, reassuring charm of a dental drill. – Harry Dresden describing Morgan.”

— Jim Butcher

418. “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

419. “Solution: Winchester.”

— Jim Butcher

420. “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

421. “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

422. “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

423. “The worst lies are almost always silence – or else truth, tainted with just enough deception to rot it to the core.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

425. “I checked my gear, my pockets, my shoelaces, and realized that I had crossed the line between making sure I was ready and trying to postpone the inevitable.”

— Jim Butcher

426. “Here’s where I ask why don’t you spend your time doing something safer and more boring. Like maybe administering suppositories to rabid gorillas.”

— Jim Butcher

427. “Hey. I don’t care what kind of faerie or mortal or hideous creature you are. If you’ve got danglies and can lose them, that’s the kind of sight that make you reconsider the possible genitalia-related ramifications of your actions real damned quick.”

— Jim Butcher

428. “I just stood there staring, because while I’ve seen a lot of weird things, I hadn’t ever seen that.”

— Jim Butcher

429. “Anger subsides. Love doesn’t.”

— Jim Butcher

430. “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

431. “It is going to work,” I told her, keeping my tone confident. “We’ll breeze right in. The Rack will be with us.” Justine glanced at me with an arched eyebrow. “The Rack?” “The Rack is more than just boobs, Justine,” I told her soberly. “It’s an energy field created by all living boobs. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

433. “You’re dead, son. Cheer is contraindicated.”

— Jim Butcher

434. “One rather thick volume was titled Means of Execution Through the Ages, and was placed with an elegant balance of nonchalance and availability at the eye level of anyone entering the room. As threats went, it was nearly subliminal – and perhaps it was placed there for that very reason.”

— Jim Butcher

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

— Jim Butcher

436. “The Denarians want to disrupt civilization, and with the Archive under their control, they could do it. Maybe they’d use biological or chemical weapons instead. Maybe they’d crash the world economy. Maybe they’d turn every program on television into one of those reality shows.” “That’s mostly done already, Harry.”

— Jim Butcher

437. “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

438. “You don’t gain knowledge without a little pain.”

— Jim Butcher

439. “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

440. “I can’t tell you how many jobs I’ve done without a hitch since the last time I saw you, Dresden. You walk through the door and everything goes to hell.” “That’s embroidered on my towels, actually,” I said.”

— Jim Butcher

441. “All of my base are belong to me.”

— Jim Butcher

442. “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

443. “I knew what it was like to have holes in my life in the shape of people who should have been there.”

— Jim Butcher

444. “If a White Court vampire wants to feed off a human, all she really has to do is crook her finger, and he comes running. There isn’t any ominous music. Nobody sparkles. As far as anyone looking on is concerned, a girl winks at a boy and goes off somewhere to make out. Happens every day. They don’t get.”

— Jim Butcher

445. “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

446. “Maybe this is what it feels like for civilians when they see cops doing some of the dirty work. A lot of times they don’t understand what’s happening. They see something they don’t like and it upsets them – because they don’t have the full story, aren’t personally facing the problem, and don’t know how much worse the alternative could be.”

— Jim Butcher

447. “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

448. “I was casting everything I had done, everything I believed, everything I had chosen – everything I was – against the will of an ancient being of darkness, terror, and malice, a fundamental power of the world. And the bonds and the will of Mother Winter could not constrain me.”

— Jim Butcher

449. “It’s an old place, but it sings in the darkness and is, in its own quirky little way, alive. It’s home.”

— Jim Butcher

450. “Let’s get something clear up front. I’m not Harry Dresden. Harry’s a wizard. A genuine, honest-to-goodness wizard. He’s Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull, with a big leather coat and a .44 revolver in his pocket. He’ll spit in the eye of gods and demons alike if he thinks it needs to be done, and to hell with the consequences – and yet somehow my little brother manages to remain a decent human being. I’ll be damned if I know how. But then, I’ll be damned regardless. My name is Thomas Raith, and I’m a monster.”

— Jim Butcher