J. K. Rowling Life Quotations

If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

I feel 80% of my life is completely normal.

It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. I wish you all very good lives.

There are always loose ends in real life.

'You all righ'?' he said gruffly. 'Yeah,' said Harry. 'No, yeh're not,' said Hagrid. 'Of course yeh're not. But yeh will be.'

'It only put me in Gryffindor,' said Harry in a defeated voice, 'because I asked not to go in Slytherin...' 'Exactly' said Dumbledore, beaming once more. 'Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'

'It was stupid, thinking it was him, I mean, I knew he was dead' Harry muttered. 'You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him....You know, Harry, in a way you did see your father last night....You found him inside yourself.'

Long ago, when Harry had been left alone while the Dursley's went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat: Pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge, he had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley's computer, or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart's content. It gave him an odd empty feeling to remember those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.

'-mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent -' said Severus. 'You see what you expect to see, Severus.' said Dumbledore.

'Tell me one last thing,' said Harry. 'Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?' Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure. 'Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?'

I like the distinction. It enables me to have more easygoing encounters in my private life.

We're all human, aren't we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.

Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.

There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.

The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.

What would come, would come...and you would have to meet it, when it did.

The stories we love best do live in us forever.

You must accept the reality of other people. You think that reality is up for negotiation, that we think it's whatever you say it is. You must accept that we are as real as you are; you must accept that you are not God.

When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.

Albus Severus," Harry said quietly, so that nobody but Ginny could hear, and she was tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.

And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world.

It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.

We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on.

And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.

She seemed to think that one of the perks of marriage was that it gave you rights of comment and intrusion over single people's love lives.