The most powerful, yet the kindest and wisest wizard there ever was.
By Jessica Xing — Written on Aug 20, 2020
Despite J.K. Rowling's controversial comments on Twitter, it doesn’t change the fact that Harry Potter, as a series, meant a lot to people as kids. Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts Headmaster, was the greatest wizard of all time, as well as a great mentor to Harry and Dumbledore quotes, from the funny, the serious, to the foreboding, all reveal what a complicated — yet ultimately good — character he was.
The headmaster, despite his flaws, always tried his best to be a wise and kind person. His restraint not only informed a lot of Harry’s decisions in the story but also taught us, the readers, the control needed to be a good person in the face of evil.
He was important to me for many reasons. While Harry had a lot of father/mentor figures in his life, Dumbledore seemed invincible. His all-knowing yet kind nature was really comforting because it never seemed like his guidance was susceptible to his more human faults.
He protected Harry all the way up to his last moments. When Dumbledore (spoilers, but also the books have been out for over 20 years now) died, it really felt like the world was over because he was the last person powerful enough to protect Harry, and in a sense us, from evil.
Here are 50 of the most powerful Dumbledore quotes from Harry Potter.
Dumbledore, despite his pain and his past, showed that being a kind person takes an incredible amount of strength. Yet, despite the effort it takes to be good, he showed that the hard work needed to become a better person was always worth it.
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
1. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
2. “The truth… It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should, therefore, be treated with great caution.”
3. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.”
4. “To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”
5. “Humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”
6. “One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”
7. “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
8. “Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
9. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
10. “The best of us sometimes eat our words.”
11. “You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
12. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
13. “I have no power to make other men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic.”
14. “For in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let them swim in the deepest ocean or glide over the highest cloud.”
15. “You think the dead we loved truly ever leave us?”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
16. “Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”
17. “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”
18. “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”
19. “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”
20. “Curiosity is not a sin... But we should exercise caution with our curiosity.”
21. “There was cold fury in every line of the ancient face; a sense of power radiated from Dumbledore as though he were giving off burning heat.”
22. “If the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good and kind and brave.”
23. “While we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one.”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
24. “You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.”
25. “The fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength.”
26. “I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels.”
27. “It was your heart that saved you.”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
28. “It’s the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”
29. “It is important to fight and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay though never quite eradicated.”
30. “I am not worried, Harry. I am with you.”
31. “Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.”
32. “Because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business.”
33. “Don't count your owls before they are delivered.”
34. “You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!"
35. “Yes, Harry, you can love, Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing.”
36. “People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.”
37. “And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”
38. “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 that rises against them and strikes back!”
39. “Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe.”
40. “Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places.”
41. “We must try not to sink beneath our anguish . . . but battle on.”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
42. “Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. And above all, those who live without love.”
43. “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
44. “It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it."
45. “Harry, you wonderful boy, you brave, brave man.”
46. “I was afraid that your hot head might dominate your good heart.”
47. “You see what you expect to see.”
48. “Of course, it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
49. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Dumbledore Quotes from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
50. “We cannot protect the young from harm. Pain must and will come.”
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Jessica Xing is a writer who covers books, media and culture.