Battle Ground Quotes

“The real battle for your own soul isn't about falling from a great height; it's about descending, or not, one choice at a time.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“When a group comes together around something they love,” I said, “it changes things. It changes how they see one another. It becomes a community. Something greater than the sum of its parts.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“I am Harry, son of Malcolm," I shouted back. "I have battled dark sorcerers and black knights! I have fought men and beasts in numbers too great for counting, invaded the heart of Winter, confronted necromancers and the living dead, vampires and ghouls and demons in their hordes endless! I have matched wits with the six Queens of Faerie and prevailed, and thwarted the combined will of the White Council! When they came for my child, I smote the Red Court of Vampires, and laid them in ruin for all the world to see. I am Harry, son of Malcolm, and I have entered the vaults of Tartarus, and stolen its treasures beneath the gaze of Hades himself! And I'm about to add giant slaying to my résumé.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Everyone,” she said, “thinks that hate and love are somehow opposite forces. They are not. They are the same force, facing opposite directions.” She glanced aside at me. “Love is a fire, my Knight. Love turned the wrong way has killed as many as hate. Reason, young wizard, is the opposite of hate, not love.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Speak for yourself,” Murphy said. “I just gave my last grenade to a Valkyrie and ordered her to blow up a kraken. I’m having a ball.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“We’ve got a goddamned wizard! Fuck those guys!”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“You!” I said, relishing the moment. “Shall not! Pass!”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“War leaves you precious little time to be human. It’s one of the more horrible realities about it.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“The hour when you sit up in bed, sweating from nightmares. The hour when you awaken for no reason but to fear the future. The hour when you stare at the clock, willing yourself to sleep, knowing it isn’t going to happen, and weariness and despair beat upon the doors to the vaults of your mind with leaden clubs. That’s when an apocalypse begins: the witching hour.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Death isn’t when your body stops working. It’s when there’s no more future. When you can’t see past right now, because you stopped believing in tomorrow.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“When it gets here, we’ll run out and dance in it,” I said. “Why?” Maggie asked. “If we don’t, life has just as much rain,” I said, “but way less dancing.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Lightning struck, a hawk cried in fury, and then a goddamned grizzly bear fell out of the night sky and onto Ethniu’s head. Don’t care how Titanic you are. No one expects an orbital-drop grizzly.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Good man,” I said. “You’re handling this well.” “I am not,” Bradley said without slowing his steps. “I am not.” “Then you are freaking out in the most useful way possible,” I said. “Keep it up.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“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.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Harry, I must say,” Toot-Toot said, dropping his voice to a stage sotto voce, “that’s frozen pizza. What are you doing?” “It’s symbolic pizza,” I said. “Symbolic pizza sucks!” Toot shouted. “None of it is good for you,” Lacuna insisted. “Guys!” I said. “The pizza—all the pizza—is in danger!” That got their attention. Toot-Toot whirled to face me in horror. “What?!” Lacuna’s face suffused with joy. “What!?” I gave them the kindergarten-level, probably cheaply animated rundown on who Ethniu was. “And now,” I concluded, “she’s coming here to kill all the people.” “Uh-huh,” Toot said, nodding, listening, completely supportive. “And me,” I said. “Uh-huh,” Toot said, brightly, waiting. “And all the pizza shops,” I said. “Oh no!” Toot wailed. He buzzed in a vertical circle. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Some things should hurt. Some things should leave you with scars. Some things should haunt your nightmares. Some things should be burned into memory. Because that was the only way to make sure that they would be fought. It was the only way to face them. It was the only way to cast down the future agents of death and havoc before they could bring things to this. The words never again mean more to some people than others.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Nothing you ever do can change the past. Can’t live your life looking backwards or you’ll spend it walking in circles.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“I might be the dumb kid with the sledgehammer from his father’s toolshed, compared to the sword-saint samurai who were the Senior Council—but I had discovered, in my time, that no matter how skilled and elegant a foe might be, a sledgehammer to the skull is a sledgehammer to the skull.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“I couldn’t ever remember actually doing more than waving at this guy as I went past. I was pretty sure I hadn’t ever introduced my dog. How did he know Mouse’s name? Damned pooch is more a of people person than I’ll ever be.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Do you remember the hardest lesson of power?” “Knowing when not to use it?”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Everyone thinks that hate and love are somehow opposite forces. They are not. They are the same force, facing opposite directions... Love turned the wrong way has killed as many as hate.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Good, because your mother says you’re not getting out of helping in the kitchen just because you’re a faerie princess now. She got you those long kitchen gloves so that you can still wash dishes.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“I hate that you're here with me,” I said. "I know." "And I'm glad that you're here with me.” "I know.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“There are a lot of ways to get ready for trouble. You get ready to fight. That’s one of them. But it’s even more important that you build something worth fighting for.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“My scrotum attempted to travel back in time.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“Eventually, it’s better to go forward into it and have things settled than to huddle in terror for one second longer.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“An old hatred. The hardest kind to resist.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“dredged up a quote from someone I rarely agreed with about anything. “What’s the point of free will, if not to spit in the eye of destiny?”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“We all must die, Dresden. There is no shame in dying for something worthwhile.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“More rain coming,” Maggie said. “When it gets here, we’ll run out and dance in it,” I said. “Why?” Maggie asked. “If we don’t, life has just as much rain,” I said, “but way less dancing.” “You’re silly, Dad.”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground