By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many.
J. K. RowlingRead
Without cunning, there is no innovation. Without ambition, there is no accomplishment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Innovation requires cleverness, and success necessitates ambition.
This quote highlights the essential qualities needed for achieving great things in life. It emphasizes that without the clever and strategic thinking often referred to as 'cunning', one cannot create or innovate effectively. Furthermore, ambition is portrayed as a vital driving force that propels individuals towards their goals, suggesting that both traits are crucial for accomplishment and progress in any endeavor.
Themes
InnovationAmbitionSuccessCunningAccomplishment
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to inspire young entrepreneurs.
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
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Those who exert the first influence upon the mind have the greatest power.
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Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don't--and it surprises me, even in myself, how much we prefer ugly scenarios to the pure unknown.
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To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is a foreshadowing - the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one's hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again.
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