Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16)

by Jim Butcher

But you can’t ignore things that are real just because they’re uncomfortable.

Maybe I should get Molly to ask for a TV. Or an Internet … thing. Device. One of those Internet thingies. I figure everyone is so insane about the Internet, there must be something cool there.

Those who labor never to wrong another see scant value in forgiveness.

There are Outsiders who want to eat your face off, and then there are the rest of them, who don’t go in for that kind of namby-pamby cuddly stuff.

Family complicates everything.

“Nothing to be sorry for,” I said. I glanced back toward where the women had disappeared to and opened my mouth. Then I ran my tongue thoughtfully over my teeth and closed it. Honestly, it’s really kind of startling how many problems that avoids. I should think about doing it more often.

I swallowed. “Then get off me.” At least I’d gotten the words in the right order.

Fear is a prison. But when you combine it with secrets, it becomes especially toxic, vicious. It puts us all into solitary, unable to hear one another clearly.

“Only the young think being called old is an insult,” I said, still smiling. “I am what I am, regardless of what anyone calls it. No one can change it, regardless of what anyone calls it. And it mostly means that nothing has managed to kill me yet.”

Because it’s hard, it’s really, really hard, in fact damned near impossible, to exercise power without it having some unexpected consequences. Doesn’t matter what kind of power it is—magic, muscle, political office, electricity, moral authority. Use any of it, and you’re going to find out that as a result, things happen that you didn’t expect.

Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future. It’s where the books are.

You can’t go around making people’s choices for them. Not if you love them.

“Mortals make the best lovers by far,” Freydis explained. “And this job means I’m basically sexually frustrated around the clock. But it’s hard to find mortals I respect.”

you’re a wizard, Harry.”

Sounds familier :-)

Mab did not descend from her high seat so much as reality itself seemed to take a polite step to one side.

The pain we feel in life always grows.

At the end of the day, people have to be who they are. If you try to take that from them, you diminish them. You reduce them to children, unable to make decisions for themselves. There’s no way to poison your relationship with someone else faster.