Lessons worth remembering from Potter books
Quotes from the Harry Potter books have been used in political posters and on signs at protest marches. Here are some of the most memorable passages.
“So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?”
Hermione Granger’s quote about the newspaper delivered daily by owls to wizard households may well describe how some people see the news source today. In Harry Potter’s world, the Daily Prophet, as described in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” is often infiltrated by those in authority to hush up stories as a warning of what happens when a free press isn’t allowed to exist.
The Daily Prophet is also known for sensationalizing news to drive up sales.
“It was important,” Dumbledore said, “to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.”
When Harry Potter realizes that everyone who loved him including his parents and Dumbledore were gone, he has to confront his own doubts in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and muster up the strength to continue to try and vanquish the Dark Lord.
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
In the series, Hermione Granger voices her distress over the way servants, known as house elves, are treated. While her classmates groan at her repeated calls for better treatment of the house elves, Sirius Black, Harry Potter’s godfather and an escapee from prison, reminds them in “Goblet of Fire” that a person’s character can be judged by their treatment of others.
It’s a quote similar to Gandhi’s saying the “greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
“We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.”
Another quote from Sirius Black, this one from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” in response to Harry Potter’s fears that he has a dark side after confiding to his godfather that he worries he has too much in common with Voldemort. Sirius Black assures Harry Potter that it’s up to him to choose which side he takes.
“Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!”
In this quote, Dumbledore in “The Half-Blood Prince” gives Harry Potter some advice that even all-powerful rulers have their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. His message is that tyrants make enemies along the way on their path to power and those enemies are waiting for the day when they can fight back.