Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17)

by Jim Butcher

no matter how skilled and elegant a foe might be, a sledgehammer to the skull is a sledgehammer to the skull.

Doesn’t matter where you go in the world—if you’re good at your job, people who are good enough at theirs to see it will respect you for it.

I stared out the window for a while, just sort of letting the world happen to me. Molly spoke, I think. “You haven’t heard a word I said, have you?” she asked me, a while later. I blinked and tried to recall, but I hadn’t really been tracking too well. “Sorry,” I said. “I mean, I’m not sorry. I’m hurt, and I deserve consideration for it. But I’m sorry that’s a pain for you right now.”