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By Harry Dresden
"The world is getting weirder. Darker every single day. Things are spinning around faster and faster, and threatening to go completely awry. Falcons and falconers. The center cannot hold.
But in my corner of the country, I'm trying to nail things down. [...] I don't want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. I'd rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges, and where elves don't come swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their p's and q's.
My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book."
But in my corner of the country, I'm trying to nail things down. [...] I don't want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. I'd rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges, and where elves don't come swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their p's and q's.
My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book."
— Harry Dresden, Storm Front
I'd hate to find out that the universe really wasn't conspiring against me. It would jerk the rug out from under my persecution complex.
— Harry Dresden, Grave Peril
I put the 'ick' in magic.
— Harry Dresden, Blood Rites
I used the knife.
I saved a child.
I won a war.
God forgive me.
Harry, after saving his daughter ,
They were dealing with something far more dangerous than me, Harry Dresden, who's battered old Volkswagon was currently in the city impound.
They were dealing with the potential dark lord nightmare warlock they'd been busy fearing since I turned sixteen. They were dealing with the wizard who had faced the Heirs of Kemmler riding a zombie dinosaur, and emerged victorious from a fight that had flattened Morgan and Captain Luccio before they had even reached it.
They were dealing with the man who had dropped a challenge to the entire Senior Council, and who had then actually showed, apparently willing to fight — on the shores of an entirely too creepy island in the middle of a freshwater sea.
They were dealing with the potential dark lord nightmare warlock they'd been busy fearing since I turned sixteen. They were dealing with the wizard who had faced the Heirs of Kemmler riding a zombie dinosaur, and emerged victorious from a fight that had flattened Morgan and Captain Luccio before they had even reached it.
They were dealing with the man who had dropped a challenge to the entire Senior Council, and who had then actually showed, apparently willing to fight — on the shores of an entirely too creepy island in the middle of a freshwater sea.
— Harry Dresden, Turn Coat
And there were some things I believed in. Some things I had faith in. Faith isn't about perfect attendance in services, or how much money you put on a little plate. It isn't about going sky-clad to the holy rites, or meditating each day upon the divine. Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better, and nobler, and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others, even when there's not going to be anyone telling you what a hero you are.
— Harry Dresden, Changes
One mistake at the end of my life couldn't erase all the times I had stood unmoved at the edge of the abyss and made snide remarks at its expense. They could kill me, but they couldn't have me. I was my own.
— Harry Dresden, Ghost Story
No, it wasn't. But the world wasn't a fair place, was it? And I had more reason to know it than most people twice my age.
The world wasn't nice, and it wasn't fair. People who didn't deserve it suffered and died every single day.
But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil, damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness...
...which could obviously be redeemed only by passing through the fiery, cleansing inferno of a wizardly digestive tract.
...which could obviously be redeemed only by passing through the fiery, cleansing inferno of a wizardly digestive tract.
— Harry Dresden, Skin Game
Other Characters
Let's get something clear right up front.
I'm not Harry Dresden.
Harry's a wizard. A genuine, honest-to-goodness wizard. He's Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull, with a big leather coat and a .44 revolver in his pocket. He'll spit in the eye of gods and demons alike if he thinks it needs to be done, and to hell with the consequences — and yet somehow [he] manages to remain a decent human being.
I'll be damned if I know how.
But then, I'll be damned regardless.
My name is Thomas Raith, and I'm a monster.
I'm not Harry Dresden.
Harry's a wizard. A genuine, honest-to-goodness wizard. He's Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull, with a big leather coat and a .44 revolver in his pocket. He'll spit in the eye of gods and demons alike if he thinks it needs to be done, and to hell with the consequences — and yet somehow [he] manages to remain a decent human being.
I'll be damned if I know how.
But then, I'll be damned regardless.
My name is Thomas Raith, and I'm a monster.
— Thomas, opening narration of Backup
My god, you're a living wrecking ball!
— Waldo Butters (effectively describing Harry in a single sentence), Dead Beat
What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the face of destiny?
— John Marcone, White Night
Listens-to-Wind: "There is the world that is and the world that should be. We live in one."
Ebenezar: "And must create the other, if it is ever to be."
—Turn Coat
You really do have a fairy godmother!
— Susan giddily unleashing her inner fashionista in concert with Lea in Changes.
"This singularity is an amalgamation of many, many choices. Fitz chose to place what little precious trust he had in you. You chose to involve Anthony in the young man's existence. Anthony chose to come here despite the danger. Aristedes chose to assault him. Waldo and Daniel chose to involve themselves in his rescue. Beyond that, every single one of the people known to each individual I have mentioned have made choices that impacted the life of those involved. Together, all of you have determined this reality. Who am I to unmake such a thing?"
"Fine, be that way."
"I will."
"Fine, be that way."
"I will."
—Angel of Death in an argument with Harry in Ghost Story.
Ladies, gents, what a treat it's been scraping out of a mess by the skin of our teeth with you. Godspeed.
— Binder, Skin Game
My faith protects me. My Kevlar helps.
— Michael Carpenter, Death Masks
Lies. Mab cannot change who you are.
— Uriel, Ghost Story
