By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many.
J. K. RowlingRead
It seemed impossible that there could be people in the world who still desired food, who laughed, who neither knew nor cared that Sirius Black was gone forever.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the contrast between personal grief and the indifference of the world around us.
In this quote, J. K. Rowling illustrates the notion that life goes on for many, even amidst a significant loss. While some may be consumed by their sorrow over the absence of Sirius Black, the reality is that the world continues to turn, and there are people who remain focused on the simple pleasures of life, such as food and laughter, oblivious to the tumultuous events that may affect others.
Themes
GriefLifeIndifferenceLossSorrow
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about resilience, one might quote this to illustrate how life continues despite our personal struggles.
More from J. K. Rowling
All quotes →Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?” James lifted an invisible sword. “‘Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!’ Like my dad.” Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him. “Got a problem with that?” “No,” said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy —” “Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” interjected Sirius.
J. K. RowlingRead
Depression isn't just being a bit sad. It's feeling nothing. It's not wanting to be alive anymore.
J. K. RowlingRead
I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit.
J. K. RowlingRead
Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?
J. K. RowlingRead
The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.
J. K. RowlingRead
Similar quotes
I wanted to pray for an hour, but I keep thinking and thinking, and always sick thoughts, and my head aches - what is the use of praying? - it's only a sin! It is strange, too, that I am not sleepy: in great, too great sorrow, after the first outbursts one is always sleepy. Men condemned to death, they say, sleep very soundly on the last night. And so it must be, it si the law of nature, otherwise their strength would not hold out... I lay down on the sofa but I did not sleep...
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
The death of a language. The word has the same kind of reluctant resonance as it has when we talk about the death of a person. And indeed, that's how it should be. For that's how it is. A language dies only when the last person who speaks it dies.
David CrystalRead
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
Thomas JeffersonRead
There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.
Ben HechtRead
Nobody likes to be found out, not even one who has made ruthless confession a part of his profession. Any autobiographer, therefore, at least between the lines, spars with his reader and potential judge.
Erik EriksonRead
Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.
Frank BormanRead