Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)

by Jim Butcher

Science, the largest religion of the twentieth century, had become somewhat tarnished by images of exploding space shuttles, crack babies, and a generation of complacent Americans who had allowed the television to raise their children.

We wizards are terrific at brooding.

It is the prerogative of wizards to be grumpy.

But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face.

think that men ought to treat women like something other than just shorter, weaker men with breasts.

But if I didn’t get out of that room in a hurry, I was going to start crying like a little girl.

Smiling always seems to annoy people more than actually insulting them.

It only goes to show that people are funny when they’re nervous about something. They say screwy things, make odd choices which, in retrospect, they feel amazingly foolish for making.

So I have a problem with creepy, dead, poisonous things. So sue me.

Maybe I should have stayed home and played with some nice, safe, forbidden black magic instead.

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