"On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took as few as four people to make the planet too crowded to stand, and the first murder was a fratricide. Genesis says that in a fit of jealous rage, the very first child born to mortal parents, Cain, snapped and popped the first metaphorical cap in another human being. The attack was a bloody, brutal, violent, reprehensible killing. Cain's brother Abel probably never saw it coming. As I opened the door to my apartment, I was filled with a sense of empathic sympathy and intuitive understanding. For freaking Cain."

"How do i do this?"

"You predicted quick victory. Now it's going to get hopelessly complicated. Jesus, don't you know any better than that by now?"

"Fear is a part of life. It's a warning mechanism. That's all. It tells you when there's danger around. Its job is to help you survive. Not cripple you into being unable to do it."

"Internet," she said sagely. "Expanding the frontiers of adolescent knowledge."

"Mister didn't come with me on cases, being above such trivial matters, but he found me pleasant company when I was at home and not moving around too much, except when he didn't, in which case he went rambling."

"...after a pointless delay for the humans to collect all their toys and keepsakes, he was able to take his rightful place in Littlemouse's arms and heard them all in the proper direction."

"I had this teacher who kept telling me that if I was ever in a fair fight, someone had made a mistake, she said."

"Being here? With you? I've met my subconscious, and he's not that sick."

"Being called "dangerous" by a cat could mean a great many things, but it was generally delivered as something of a compliment."

"Kitai blinked slowly. "Why would you use the same word for these things? That is ridiculous.""We have a lot of words like that," Tavi said. "They can mean more than one thing.""That is stupid," Kitai said. "It is difficult enough to communicate without making it more complicated with words that mean more than one thing."

"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 questions don't have simple answers--or any answer at all?"

"We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville."

"That woman," Grimm said quietly, "drives me quite insane."Kettle grunted. "Why'd you marry her, then?"

"A bolt of warmth, fierce with joy and pride and gratitude, flashed through me like sudden lightning. I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching-they are your family. And they were my heroes."

"See? This is why I'm not religious. I couldn't possibly keep my mouth shut long enough to get along with everyone else."

"All power is the same. Magic. Physical strength. Economic strength. Political strength. It all serves a single purpose-it gives its possessor a broader spectrum of choices. It creates alternative courses of action."

"You're such a cynic," Molly said."I think cynics are playful and cute."

"Technically,' I said, "I'm not breaking any of the Laws of Magic. I'm not robbing you of your will, so I'm clear of the Fourth Law. And you didn't get loose, so I'm clear of the Seventh Law. The Council can bite me.'The bone ridges above Chauncy's eyes twitched. 'Surely, that is merely a colorful euphemism, rather than a statement of desire.''It is."

"Time after time, history demonstrates that when people don't want to believe something, they have enormous skills of ignoring it altogether."

"Just remember that you're on my list, Marcone. Soon as I get done with all the other evils in this town, you won't be the lesser of them anymore."Marcone stared at me with half-lidded eyes and said, "Eek."

"Industry and determination, Mister Kettle, can transform the difficult into the routine," Grimm said."

"I hate what you represent."... "Power without conviction." Isana replied, her tone lifeless, matter of fact. "Ambition without conscience. Decent folk suffer at the hands of those like you."

"Kids. You gotta love them. I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon--perfect."

"Give me passion -- and compassion -- any day."

"The fire of my tribulations had not simply been pain to be endured. It had been an agent of transformation. After all that I'd been through, I'd changed. Not for the worse, I was pretty sure--at least not yet. But only a moron or a freaking lunatic could have faced the things I had and remained unfazed by them."

"Maybe, he said in a slow, rural drawl, "you could explain to me why I found you in the middle of an orgy. "Well, I said, "if you're going to be in an orgy, the middle is the best spot, isn't it."

"...as nervous as a bird in a coal mine."

"Likest thou jelly within thy doughnut?"

"[Mouse is] with us. The dog is a handicap-assist animal."The kid lifted his eyebrows."My mouth is partially paralyzed," I said. "It makes it hard for me to read. He's here to help me with the big words. Tell me if I'm supposed to push or pull on doors, that kind of thing."

"HOW CAN YOU KNOW THIS? the Voice demanded."I look at things and think about them, Folly replied. "And use my intuition, of course, and deduction and induction, as well as any historical or theoretical models that seem to apply."

"Lady Placida smiled. "History seldom takes note of serendipity when it records events. And from what I have heard, I suspect an argument could be made that you very much did earn the title."Many women have earned titles, Your Grace. It doesn't seem to have been a factor in whether or not they actually received them.Lady Placida laughed. "True enough. But perhaps that is beginning to change. She offered her hands. "It is a distinct pleasure to meet you, Steadholder."

"Hell's bells, irony blows."

"How long have you been a Wiccan?''A what?''A pagan. A witch.''I'm not a witch,' I said, glancing out the door. 'I'm a wizard.'Sanya frowned. 'What is the difference?''Wizard has a Z'He looked at me blankly.'No one appreciates me.' I muttered."

"There's no way to know what's going to happen, Folly. But we'll blood well be on our feet when it does."

"Back-to-back", Bayard replied, and Grimm felt the sudden, wiry pressure of the other man's shoulders pressed against the middle of his back."I should be friends with taller people," Grimm panted."Bite your tongue, old boy, or I'll hack apart your ankles."

"I'm so pretty, it's hard for me to think of myself as intelligent."

"The wacky thing about those bad guys is that you can't count on them to be obvious. They forget to wax their mustaches and goatees, leave their horns at home, send their black hats to the dry cleaner's. They're funny like that."

"Maybe you know the monsters, Martin," Murphy said quietly. "But I know the guy who stops them. And if they don't return the girl, we'll make them regret it." She nodded at me and said, "Let's go. We can watch Dresden kill the bitch."

"BLARGLE SLORG NOTH HARGHLE FTHAGN! You know. The usual."

"I'm going to use them to track him down and thwart him." "Thwart?" Sarissa asked."Thwart." I said. "To prevent someone from accomplishing something by means of visiting gratuitous violence upon his smarmy person.""I'm pretty sure that isn't the definition," Sarissa said."It is today."

"He had traded the lives of people he did not know for those of men he did.That was, he supposed, human nature."

"Empty night, Harry. Didn't your little adventure in the lake teach you a damned thing?"I scowled some more. "Like what?""Like life is short," he [Thomas] said. "Like you don't know when it's going to end. Like some things, left unsaid, can't ever be said."

"Like "love, "hope is one of those ridiculously disproportional words that by all rights should be a lot longer."

"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."

"When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family."

"I've had a tense couple of days. And I've got to tell you, burning someone's face off sounds like a great way to relax."

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

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

"You already beat yourself up for enough things that aren't your fault. People who care don't want to add to that." He paused, and then added gently, "But you assumed it was about you." I finished the beer and sighed. "Arrogance," I said."I feel stupid." "Good," Michael said. "It's good for everyone to feel that way sometimes. It helps remind you how much you still have to learn."