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38e751f
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We're stunning--and we need to be, if we're to make a good impression and accomplish our goals. It's vain, it's stupid, and it's shallow, but that makes it no less true.
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Jim Butcher |
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4dbb94c
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My mouth kept running without checking in with my brain. My heart maybe, but not my brain.
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Jim Butcher |
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5099e90
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It doesn't take much power to hurt someone," she said. "It's far easier than healing the damage."
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Jim Butcher |
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420b535
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When people come to the only professional wizard in the Chicago phone book for help, they're one of two things: desperate or smart. Very rarely are they both.
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Jim Butcher |
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f21862b
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Try not to look like that," Ascher said under breath, after we were in the elevator. "Like what?" I asked. "Like you're expecting ninjas to leap out of the trash cans. This is a party." "Everyone knows there's no such things as ninjas," I scoffed. "But it will be something. Count on it."
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ninjas
party
trash-cans
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Jim Butcher |
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15f2756
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Come with me if you want to live.
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movie-quotes
terminator
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Jim Butcher |
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15fbbb8
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Harry, that's not a plan, it's a Looney Tune.
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Jim Butcher |
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32039a7
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Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of trauma, I will fear no concussion. Crane
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Jim Butcher |
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ca5617e
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The best magic comes from the inside.
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Jim Butcher |
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47b7ff0
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And besides, she was curious. She had questions. And answering questions was very nearly always more important than caution.
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Jim Butcher |
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c608511
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I had time to think, though I wasn't sure I wanted to.
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Jim Butcher |
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2192603
|
the beginning of wisdom is in realizing that one knows nothing, then the beginning of understanding is in realizing that all things exist in accord with a single truth: Large things are made of smaller things. Drops
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Jim Butcher |
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6a8ebba
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Hands that wrap us in warmth, that hold us close. Hands that guide us to shelter, to comfort, to food. Hands that hold and touch and reassure us through our very first crisis, and guide us into our very first shelter from pain. The first thing we ever learn is that the touch of someone else's hand can ease pain and make things better.
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Jim Butcher |
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38f7388
|
Tragically misunderstood? Hah! I understand you, buddy. You're such a pompous, arrogant, pretentious, chauvinistic, hopelessly old-fashioned, stupidly pigheaded
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Jim Butcher |
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fba01e9
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It's one hour. Just one little hour. What could happen in one hour?" And that's how I knew that Mort was telling the whole truth when he said he wasn't a hero. Heroes know better than to hand the universe lines like that."
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Jim Butcher |
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ae15e41
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My answer came out at once. For me, chivalry isn't dead; it's an involuntary reflex. It could have been any woman asking for help, and I'd have said the same thing. It might have taken me a second or two longer, but I would have. For Elaine, there was no need to think about it for even that long. "I'll help." --
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Jim Butcher |
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1b5c6de
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More than anything, I wanted to crawl into a hole and pull it in after me. I wanted to be not.
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Jim Butcher |
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15b0dda
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It's boring." "Oh," I said. I rubbed at my jaw. "You think I should have gone four-color?" Bob stared at me for a second and said, "I have nightmares about Hell, where all I do is add up numbers and try to have conversations with people like you." I glowered up at the skull and nodded. "Okay, fine. You think it needs more drama." "More anything. Drama would do. Or breasts." I sighed and saw where that line of thought was going. "I am not go..
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jim-butcher
legs
harry-dresden
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Jim Butcher |
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4060edf
|
What is teaching but the art of planting and nurturing power?" Lea replied. "Mortals prattle on about lonely impulses of delight and the gift of knowledge, and think that teaching is a trade like metalsmithing or healing or telling lies on television. It is not. It is the dissemination of power unto a new generation and nothing less. For her, as for you, lessons demand real risk in order to attain their true rewards."
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Jim Butcher |
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611e1bc
|
Yeah, chocolate. Chocolate fends off all kinds of nasty stuff. And if you get hungry while warding off evil, you have a snack. It's multipurpose equipment. One
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Jim Butcher |
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54be1a1
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Mort drove one of those little hybrid cars that, when not running on gasoline, was fueled by idealism. It was made out of crepe paper and duct tape and boasted a computer system that looked like it could have run the NYSE and NORAD, with enough attention left over to play tic-tac-toe. Or possibly Global Thermonuclear War.
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Jim Butcher |
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c6835b7
|
Now that I've got this to keep me safe off the island," I said very quietly, "what's to stop me from having Alfred drop you into a cell right this second, and solving my problems myself?" "I am," Mab said. She gave me a very small, very chill smile, and held up her finger. There was a tiny droplet of my blood upon it, scarlet against her pale skin."
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Jim Butcher |
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72f9ae1
|
Sometimes, being able to use magic was so cool.
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Jim Butcher |
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e0e1454
|
Evil food smells amazing--which is either proof that there is a Satan or some equivalent out there, or that the Almighty doesn't actually want everyone to eat organic tofu all the time. I can't decide.
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Jim Butcher |
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0c17ca1
|
I thought about my father. I usually do, when I get that low. He was a good man, a generous man, a hopeless loser.
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Jim Butcher |
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35b1af8
|
If you're ever in a spooky situation and have a strong instinct that you are being watched, hunted, or followed, I advise you not to treat those instincts lightly.
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Jim Butcher |
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fadeb7a
|
If you're right, they aren't the deceased," Murphy said. "They're the victims. Big difference. Which is it?" "Wish I could say," I said. "But the only evidence that could prove it one way or another is leaking out onto the floor. If we get a survivor, maybe I could take a peek and see, but barring that, we're stuck with legwork." Murphy sighed and looked down. "Two suicide pacts could--technically--be a coincidence. Three of them, no way it..
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Jim Butcher |
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201db2b
|
Unfortunately, my head wasn't getting thoughts through to my mouth. "You aren't . . . I'm not sure if I can . . . Karrin, I want this, but . . ." "It's all right," she said quietly. "I'm not sure," I said again. I wanted her. But I wanted it to be about more than desire. I could have that if I wanted--mindless, empty sex is not exactly in short supply among the Sidhe of Winter. But that kind of thing can eat you hollow, if you let it. And K..
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Jim Butcher |
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ce71e47
|
Her looks were almost extraneous. They weren't any more important to her appeal than a glass was to wine.
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Jim Butcher |
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20fdceb
|
Mortals prattle on about lonely impulses of delight and the gift of knowledge, and think that teaching is a trade like metalsmithing or healing or telling lies on television. It is not. It is the dissemination of power unto a new generation and nothing less. For her, as for you, lessons demand real risk in order to attain their true rewards.
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Jim Butcher |
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546a479
|
Describing something helps to define it, to give it limits, to set guardrails of understanding around it.
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Jim Butcher |
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60c16ef
|
Magic comes from life, from the energy of our world and from people, from their emotions and their will. That's what I had always been taught.
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Jim Butcher |
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165bb43
|
When a single cat let loose a war cry, it was an unsettling sound. When two cats suddenly wailed at each other in a similar fashion, it was downright unnerving. When of them caterwauled at the same time, in a single voice, the sound alone was enough to make one feel as if the skin had been peeled from one's muscle and bone, to call up horrors inherited from ancestors long since dead and forgotten, raw terror before a deadly predator.
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eerie
scary
war-cry
cats
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Jim Butcher |
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7a44a5c
|
They always have good coffee here," Ebenezar said a few moments later. "And they don't call it funny names," I said. "It's just coffee. Not frappalattegrandechino."
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Jim Butcher |
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12a026c
|
Solution: Winchester.
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Jim Butcher |
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cd35df2
|
What do you do to make up for failing everyone in your life? How do you make it right? How do you apologize for hideous things you never intended to happen?
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Jim Butcher |
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d5a1834
|
Chicago is what a polite person would call a colorful place. It's a den of crime and corruption. And it's a monument to architecture and enterprise. It's violent and dangerous, and an epicenter of music and the arts. The good, the bad, the ugly, the sublime, monsters and angels--they're all here. The
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Jim Butcher |
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8427fd2
|
you can't go around changing your definition of right and wrong (or smart and stupid) just because doing the wrong thing happens to be really convenient. Sometimes it isn't easy to be sane, smart, and responsible. Sometimes it sucks. Sucks wang. Camel wang. But that doesn't turn wrong into right or stupid into smart.
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Jim Butcher |
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3ddc941
|
I remember very little of my father, but one thing I do remember is him telling me always to be polite. It costs you nothing but breath, and can buy you as much as your life.
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Jim Butcher |
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0e915e1
|
That kind of subtle manipulation always works best amidst a flurry of distractions. Washington's been doing it like that for decades.
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Jim Butcher |
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4571bea
|
My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk.
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Jim Butcher |
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a77447a
|
It didn't smell so great, and pizza boxes and empty Coke cans had overflowed the trash can and spilled over a significant portion of the kitchen floor. You could barely walk without stepping on clothing that needed to be washed. My furniture was covered with scribbled-on papers and discarded pens and pencils.
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Jim Butcher |
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0064981
|
He died in his sleep one night. An aneurysm, the doctors said. I found him, cold, smiling. Maybe he'd been dreaming of Mother when he went. And as I looked at him, I suddenly felt, for the very first time in my life, utterly, entirely alone. That something was gone that would never return, that a little hole had been hollowed out inside of me that wasn't ever going to be filled again.
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Jim Butcher |
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5c8d283
|
bright, flowery plants... were busy committing the olfactory equivalent of aggravated assault.
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Jim Butcher |