Jim Butcher Quotes

Growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something. Each time you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize there are more flavors of pain than coffee. Pain does two things: it teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. And everything that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one way or another.

Pain is one of life's great lessons. You need to know how you'll react to the negatives in your life. Only then will you learn from the pain, and the next time it happens, you can speed up your healing process.

The worst things that ever happened to me were before I was 20. It has been slow, hard-won improvement since then.

There is a big difference between hurt and harm. We all hurt sometimes in facing hard truths, but it makes us grow. It can be the source of huge growth. That is not harmful. Harm is when you damage someone. Facing reality is usually not a damaging experience, even though it can hurt.

My mother used to talk about passages and, once in a while, about ordeals. We all have them; we are all shaped by them. She thought the key was to find the healing in the hurt.

Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another.

I didn't lead a very wise life, myself, but it was a full one and a grown-up one. You come of age very quickly through shipwreck and disaster.

Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is that you move on. But if you're like me, you just keep chasing the storm.

I look back and think of all the times I've had to let things go in the past, and how traumatic it seemed while it was happening, but how my understanding of it changed as time passed - and oftentimes things that seem really difficult and traumatic in the short term seem a lot less difficult and traumatic in the long term. So I remind myself of that.

The lessons I learned that were most important were the ones that hurt my feelings.

Some people as a result of adversity are sadder, wiser, kinder, more human. Most of us are better, though, when things go better.

Losing fights, or even winning fights, can be heartbreaking, and you can throw that away, but the truth is that it does make our lives better.

I don't think pain is a prerequisite for growth, but on the other hand, most of us choose very painful ways to learn.

Deliverance is about what I went through the first time. And I chalk it up as a learning experience.

Don't let your wounds make you become someone you're not.

What happened to me in Somalia doesn't define me.

Brooklyn is not the easiest place to grow up in, although I wouldn't change that experience for anything.

Real pain hurts so bad. When you've gone through something and you've overcome it, you're able to heal other people.

I've seen my parents dragged through the mud. But I wouldn't be the person I am today without them.

It was a great experience for me - the ups and downs - because I became a man in Philadelphia.

When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all.

It's all the stuff I've been through in my life. From family struggles, people doubting me, things I went through as a child and going to prison, they all played a factor in who I am today. It really made me a better person. Going through those situations can make or break you as a human being.

I get why we don't want to be in pain, but there's something very essential about what happens when we're in pain and some of the growth that can come from it if we stare at it straight in the face.

I went through a lot, but as I went through it, I learned from the situations.

Struggle teaches you a lot of things, and I am happy that I witnessed a roller coaster ride. The journey has improved me as a person and made me more mature.