There are things you can’t walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward.

There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human...

Right,’ Thomas said. ‘Where are we headed?”To where they treat me like royalty,’ I said.’We’re going to Burger King?’I rubbed the heel of my hand against my forehead and spelled fratricide in a subvocal mutter,...

It rained toads the day the White Council came to town.

It doesn’t make you a monster to want, she said, her voice very gentle. It’s what you do with it that matters.

We are as the dead,” Sha said. “Our purpose is to dedicate our lives to the service of our lord. And, when it is necessary, to surrender those lives. When we become what we are,...

Whenever you’ve got a choice, do good, kiddo. It isn’t always fun or easy, but in the long run it makes your life better.

I ask people impertinent questions. Hopefully turning up pertinent answers.

Are you always a smartass?’Nope. Sometimes I’m asleep.

I love being a wizard. Every day is like Disneyland.

If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act...

Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your...

You beg fate to make your fears into reality, Aleran. But for the moment, they are only fears. They may come. If so, then face them and overcome them. Until then, pay them no mind....

What’s with that?’ Butters screamed, his voice high and frightened. ‘Just covering his head with his arms? Didn’t he see the lawyer in the movie?

So we get a plan,” I said. “Any suggestions?””Blow up the building,” Kincaid said without looking up. “That works good for vampires. Then soak what’s left in gasoline. Set it on fire. Then blow it...

I like to think of it less as embezzling and more as an involuntary goodwill contribution.

If you make some comment even obliquely alluding to menstruation or menopause and its effect on my judgment,” Murphy interrupted, “I will break your arm in eleven places.

You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me.

Age is always advancing and I’m fairly sure it’s up to no good.

I sometimes give myself excellent advice. Occasionally, I even listen to it.

Revenge is like sex, Mister Dresden. It’s best when it comes on slow, quiet, until it all seems inexorable.

Jobs are a part of life. Maybe you’ve heard of the concept. It’s called work? See, what happens is that you suffer through doing annoying and humiliating things until you get paid not enough money....

The course of history is determined not by battles, by sieges, or usurpation, but by the individuals. The strongest army is, at its most basic level, a collection of individuals. Their decisions, their passions, their...

You’re in America now,” I said. “Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you’d prefer.

…This is a place of learning where very few learn anything of value. That you, who have courage and intelligence, are held in contempt by most of your kind here because you have no sorcery…...

I had a vague memory of being that ridiculous at one time. Let he who hath never worn parachute pants cast the first stone.

You rush a miracle worker, you get lousy miracles!

It isn’t good to hold on too hard to the past. You can’t spend your whole life looking back. Not even when you can’t see what lies ahead. All you can do is keep on...

Loneliness is a hard thing to handle. I feel it, sometimes. When I do, I want it to end. Sometimes, when you’re near someone, when you touch them on some level that is deeper than...

Because a sound tree doesn’t have bad roots, Amara. No enterprise of greatnessbegins with treachery, with lying to the people who trust and love you

One ravishing dark-haired beauty wearing leather pants and strategically applied electrical tape, stared hard at me and, when she saw me looking, licked her lips very, very slowly. She trailed a fingertip over her chin,...

Men plan. Fate Laughs.Guis Alera, First Lord

That we’d figure it out. That you weren’t alone.” Stab.Twist.He was right. It was just that simple.

Thank God for imminent doomsday.

Those who deal in magic learn to see the world in a slightly differnt light than everybody else.you gain a perspective you had considered before. A way of thinking that would never have occurred to...

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar

Da. This is going very well already.”Thomas barked out a laugh. “There are seven of us against the Red King and his thirteen most powerful nobles, and it’s going well?”Mouse sneezed.”Eight,” Thomas corrected himself. He...

They don’t make morgues with windows. In fact, if the geography allows for it, they hardly ever make morgues above the ground. I guess it’s partly because it must be eisier to refrigerate a bunch...

Fear has a lot of flavors and textures. There’s a sharp, silver fear that runs like lightning through your arms and legs, galvanizes you into action, power, motion. There’s heavy, leaden fear that comes in...

Every soul is special. They’re all beautiful. They’re all far more significant than anyone on this rock realizes. I think when people are at their best, they’re acting in accordance with their soul. The ones...

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

I sidestepped the vampire’s rush, and drove my half of the former blasting rod down at its back, Buffy-like.Maybe it works better on television.

You’re dead, son. Cheer is contraindicated.

Maybe my values are outdated, but I come from an old school of thought. I think that men ought to treat women like something other than just shorter, weaker men with breasts. Try and convict...

Bob, would you be willing to take on Evil Bob?”Bob’s eyes darted nervously. “I’d . . . prefer not to. I’d really, really prefer not to. You have no idea. That me was crazy. And...

Susan hardly had begun to slow down when Tera appeared from between a couple of buildings and loped over to the car. I leaned forward, opened the door, and she got into the backseat. I...

When people say the word “convention,” they are usually referring to large gatherings of the employees of companies and corporations who attend a mass assembly, usually in a big hotel somewhere, for the purpose of...

She studied my face for a long minute. “Are you going to help my mom?” It was a simple question. But how do you tell a child that things just aren’t that simple, that some...

You’re going to have to take care of yourself,” Karrin said quietly. “Over the next few weeks. Rest. Give yourself a chance to heal. Keep the wound on your leg clean. Get to a doctor...

Where instinct fails, intellect must venture.