Top 120 William Ritter Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Failure is not the opposite of success – it’s a part of it.”

— William Ritter

2. “All exceptional people are, by definition, exceptions to the norm. If we insist on being ordinary, we can never be truly extraordinary.”

— William Ritter

3. “All due respect to Romeo and Juliet, but I don’t think love is sacrifice at all. Real love is when you let another person make you better. You don’t lose yourself in love – you find yourself there.”

— William Ritter

4. “You don’t lose yourself in love-you find yourself there.”

— William Ritter

5. “I learned a long time ago that we do not survive because we’re strong – we become stronger the more we survive.”

— William Ritter

6. “It’s not about the treasure – it’s about the hunt. – Abigail.”

— William Ritter

7. “How do you know if you’re doing the right thing?” she asked. “I keep trying, but sometimes I feel as though I’ve done nothing but the wrong thing all my life.” “I’m sure that isn’t true,” I said. “You keep trying – and in the end I think maybe that’s the only right thing anybody can do.”

— William Ritter

8. “This world doesn’t need showy champions. It needs people who are good, people who do good, even if nobody will ever know.”

— William Ritter

9. “This city is alive. It has a soul, and that soul is a glorious mess of beliefs and cultures all swirling together into something precious and strange and new.”

— William Ritter

10. “But you – you notice mailboxes and wastebaskets and... and people. One who can see the ordinary is extraordinary indeed, Abigail Rook. – Jackaby.”

— William Ritter

11. “I prefer to look after myself, ma’am, but thank you. I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but some of us have more pressing matters to attend to than practicing our curtsies and turning foolishly sized bonnets into topiaries.”

— William Ritter

12. “That will suffice,” Jackaby grumbled loudly from behind me. “Yes, yes. You are young and your love is a hot biscuit and other abysmally romantic metaphors, I’m sure. You do recall that you saw each other yesterday?”

— William Ritter

13. “Detective work is neither a happy nor a satisfying business, Miss Rook,” said Jackaby, settling in as the amber buildings sailed past our window. “Marlowe will understand.” “I don’t understand at all.” Commissioner Marlowe kept his voice low and even as we sat across from him the following morning.”

— William Ritter

14. “He’s quite mad, you know. But adventure can be very appealing.”

— William Ritter

15. “I guess I forgot about being frightened because it felt good to finally be in the adventure.”

— William Ritter

16. “But we are never alone. We bring with us the spirits of our ancestors. We are haunted by their demons and protected by their deities.”

— William Ritter

17. “Failure is not the opposite of success – it’s a part of it. And as failures go,” he added with a lopsided grin, “this one was really spectacular, wasn’t it?”

— William Ritter

18. “Miss Rook, I am not an occultist.” Jackaby turned on the landing and faced me. “I am a man of reason and science. I believe what I can see or prove, and what I can see is often difficult for others to grasp. I have a gift that is, as far as I have found, unique to me. It allows me to see truth where others see the illusion – and there are many illusions, so many masks and facades. All the world’s a stage, as they say, and I seem to have the only seat in the house with a view behind the curtain.”

— William Ritter

19. “The greatest figures in history are never the ones who avoid failure, but those who march chin-up through countless failures, one after the next, until they come upon the occasional victory.”

— William Ritter

20. “The most frightening monsters are monsters’ mothers. Just ask Beowulf.”

— William Ritter

21. “Monsters are easy, Miss Rook. They’re monsters. But a monster in a suit? That’s basically just a wicked man, and a wicked man is a more dangerous thing by far.”

— William Ritter

22. “The only paths you can’t travel are the ones you block yourself – so don’t let the fear of failure stop you from trying in the first place.”

— William Ritter

23. “The real powers at play never take center stage. Don’t follow the marionette, follow the strings.”

— William Ritter

24. “I don’t need to understand someone to respect them.”

— William Ritter

25. “This world is full of dragon-slayers. What we need are a few more people who aren’t too proud to listen to a few fish.”

— William Ritter

26. “I read the first few,” said Jackaby. “I’ve instructed my duck to just file the rest directly under P. I left it to him to decide if that was for politics or paranoia.”

— William Ritter

27. “He paused, watching Charlie breathing slowly in and out for a moments. “Were it not for the assistance of your young ‘monster,’ here, you almost certainly would not have survived Swift’s attack. Marlowe is a good man,” Jackaby added, thoughtfully, “but he only knows how to slay dragons. This world is full of dragons-slayers. What we need are a few people who aren’t too proud to listen to a fish.”

— William Ritter

28. “It’s time.” Jenny nodded. “I’m ready to know.”

— William Ritter

29. “Jackaby turned to look at me. “What in heaven’s name are you doing with my copy of Historia Lycanthropis?” “I – what?” I answered eloquently. “That book. What on earth are you doing with it?” “Well, you had the stick.” His eyebrows furrowed. “This is a shillelagh. It was cut from Irish blackthorn by a leprechaun craftsman, cured in the furnace of Gofannon, and imbued with supernatural powers of protection. That” – he gestured to the book – “is a book.” “It’s heavy, though.”

— William Ritter

30. “I think you must be a bit confused,” he said. “But don’t feel bad – it’s a common state. Most people are.”

— William Ritter

31. “Follow my lead, Miss Rook,” Jackaby said, rapping on the ornately trimmed door to 1206 Campbell Street. Were my employer a standard private investigator, those might have been simple instructions, but in the time I’ve been his assistant, I’ve found very little about Jackaby to be standard. Following his lead tends to call for a somewhat flexible relationship with reality.”

— William Ritter

32. “A young woman across the dock pulled her winter coat tightly around herself and ducked her chin down as the crowd of sailors passed. Her shoulders might have shaken, just a little, but she kept to her path without letting the men’s boisterous laughter keep her from her course. In her I saw myself, a fellow lost girl, headstrong and headed anywhere but home.”

— William Ritter

33. “I had heard of offices feeling like prisons, but in this case our prison felt, rather anticlimactically, like an office.”

— William Ritter

34. “Bertram!” Jackaby patted him on the arm affably as he bustled past him into the front hall. “It’s been ages, how are the kids?” “I remain unmarried, Mr. Jackaby, and I’m afraid you can’t be seen just now.” “Nonsense. Miss Rook, can you see me?” “Certainly, sir.” “Well, there you have it. You must have your eyes checked, Bertram. Now.”

— William Ritter

35. “It’s all about perspective, I suppose. As a rule, all of the various ogre breeds are on their best behavior here at the market.” “This one looks as though he would like to break that rule.” I swallowed. “He looks as though he would like to break it across my face.”

— William Ritter

36. “That reminds me,” he said, pausing. “There’s a jar in my office marked ‘Bail.’ If you don’t hear from me by tonight, just bring it down to the Mason Street station, would you? I’m usually in the first or second cell. There’s a good girl. See you in a bit!” The.”

— William Ritter

37. “My brick. My house. My whole wide world.”

— William Ritter

38. “I have ceased concerning myself with how things look to others, Abigail Rook. I suggest you do the same. In my experience, others are generally wrong.”

— William Ritter

39. “Firstly,” Jackaby said with a sigh, “a ‘proper detective’ is about the last thing a good detective wants to look like, most of the time.”

— William Ritter

40. “Does this smell like paprika or gunpowder to you?”

— William Ritter

41. “He might not have both oars in the water, but his course is sound.”

— William Ritter

42. “Maybe if you would bother reading a book once in a while instead of hurling them about every chance you get, you would have put the pieces together yourself by now.”

— William Ritter

43. “It was the first time I had ever heard him address me by my first name. I wanted to live long enough to hear him do it again.”

— William Ritter

44. “He had the cheerful demeanor of someone who has been beaten about the face all night with a sock full of porridge – only.”

— William Ritter

45. “So often,” Jackaby said, “people think that when we arrive at a crossroads, we can choose only one path, but – as I have often and articulately postulated – people are stupid. We’re not walking the path. We are the path. We are all of the roads and all of the intersections. Of course you can choose both.”

— William Ritter

46. “Some girls work in shops or sell flowers. Some girls find husbands and play house. I assist a mad detective in investigating unexplained phenomena – like fish that ought to be cats but seem to have forgotten how. My name is Abigail Rook, and this is what I do.”

— William Ritter

47. “Miss Rook,” he said, “the greatest figures in history are never the ones who avoid failure, but those who march chin-up through countless failures, one after the next, until they come upon the occasional victory.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Failure is not the opposite of success – it’s a part of it.”

— William Ritter

48. “Across town, Mr. Henderson – the man who had heard the banshee’s silent scream – spent the evening dying. To be more accurate, he spent a very brief portion of the evening dying, and the rest of it being dead.”

— William Ritter

49. “Fight the monsters, then, Phillip. Don’t fight the innocent bystanders who happen to come from the same place. You’re not afraid of magic, not really. You’re just afraid of what you don’t understand – and too stubborn to try understanding.”

— William Ritter

50. “Inspector Marlowe had sounded just like my father. “This business is not for the female temperament,” he had said – but Jackaby had not hesitated to point me toward the worst of it and ask for my opinions. It made me inexplicably excited that I would be working with this mad detective again. Looking back, I suppose I ought to have been less afraid of being left safely behind, and more afraid of the looming precipice ahead. I.”

— William Ritter