Jonathan Sims > Quotes

“He considered himself a good man, and always did his best to avoid passing judgement on others, but deep down he had an unshakeable conviction that all rich people were deeply, deeply stupid.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“This world was designed to generate winners and losers, and it showed a lack of character to wish yourselves a winner without accepting what it does to those who lose.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“To Violet, the greatest danger of eye contact was that people thought you were interested in their opinions.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“I am not a brave man. I believe I am starting to come to terms with that fact, but I am, in certain circumstances, a very stubborn one.”
― Jonathan Sims

“Why do you do that?

Do what? Push the sceptic thing so hard!? I mean, it made sense at first, but now? After everything we’ve seen, after everything you’ve read! I hear you recording statements and y-you just dismiss them. You tear them to pieces like they’re wasting your time, but half of the “rational” explanations you give are actually more far-fetched than just accepting it was a, a ghost or something. I mean for god’s sake John, we’re literally hiding from some kind of worm… queen… thing, how, how could you possibly still not believe!?

Of course, I believe. Of course I do. Have you ever taken a look at the stuff we have in Artefact Storage? That’s enough to convince anyone. But, but even before that… Why do you think I started working here? It’s not exactly glamorous. I have… I’ve always believed in the supernatural. Within reason. I mean. I still think most of the statements down here aren’t real. Of the hundreds I’ve recorded, we’ve had maybe… thirty, forty that are… that go on tape. Now, those, I believe, at least for the most part.

Then why do you –

Because I’m scared, Martin!. Because when I record these statements it feels… it feels like I’m being watched. I… I lose myself a bit. And then when I come back, it’s like… like if I admit there may be any truth to it, whatever’s watching will… know somehow. The skepticism, feigning ignorance. It just felt safer.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 1

“Sorry Elias, I can't hear you, there’s a door in the way.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 3

“Gonna be honest. A rich man suffering consequences sounds a lot less plausible to me than ghosts.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“Hello Jon, Apologies For The Deception.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“She was fine. There was no reason for her not to be, so she was fine.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 3

“Maybe we're all just broken inside. Unable to really grasp the difference between fictional people and people we just don't know. They're all just abstract ideas we're happy to have suffer for our enjoyment.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 3

“Free of what? We all have forces that drive us, circumstances that direct us, and even if we choose to ignore these and act against all logic, just to prove that we can – is that not simply allowing the existential terror of our own powerlessness to control us instead?”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“What good’s being alone if you don’t know how alone you truly are?”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Though her mother's dire predictions of robbery, murder or kidnapping had never come true (yet another way Violet had disappointed her), she had been right about how harsh and ugly London was. If you couldn't find the quiet joy in that ugliness, it might be a bit much for some people.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“Nothing worth doing should be easy, she had always felt, and that included living.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“There is nothing in the world more reassuring than ignorance, which we can mistake for certainty.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Bodies are strange. Rather glad they're not my concern anymore."
"Must be nice."
"It really is.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“The more I listen, the more it seems to me we’re all just – groping about, trying desperately to find out what we’re actually meant to be doing.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Some of the smartest people there were also the most committed. Intelligence doesn’t make you less prone to taking on bad ideas, it just makes you better at defending them to other people and to yourself. Smart people can believe some truly ridiculous things, and then deploy all the reason and logic at their disposal to justify them, because a belief doesn’t begin in your mind. It begins in your feelings.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“The ghosts were never the problem”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“Nice to see Gertrude also used to get a lot of threats. So far, it doesn’t seem that any of them went desperately well, except for Elias, of course, but he didn’t threaten, did he, just...did it.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Right, well. If I’m just another cog, maybe I can’t leave the machine, but from this moment I’m not turning. I’m jammed.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Well, sometimes the helping people hurts.

Sure, but that doesn’t mean everything painful helps.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“At a certain point, beyond all extremity, the only freedom you have left is the freedom to say ‘No’ and let them do as they will”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“Jumping on a grenade is only heroic if you weren’t the one who actually threw it.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“His origins were similar to any other billionaire: he was provided with a small fortune by his father’s family”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“There was something about the long stretch of train ride rattling out towards the suburbs and countryside that he found strangely oppressive. The same landmarks passing him by every day, again and again, marking the passage of time between a deeply unfulfilling job and a house his parents were clearly sick of sharing with him. A huge pendulum, back and forth, each swing another tally on a wasted life he’d never get back.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys

“It’s easy to pass judgment from the outside.

One more reason to stay on the outside and watch.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Is that your first question?
…is there a limit?
Only until I get bored. And that does tend to come more quickly these days.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4

“Doesn’t even need to tell you any lies – just waits for the lies you tell yourself.”
― Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives: Season 4