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
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.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire young entrepreneurs.
By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many.
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.
Depression isn't just being a bit sad. It's feeling nothing. It's not wanting to be alive anymore.
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.
Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?
The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.
...and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man - though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.
In the company of friends, writers can discuss their books, economists the state of the economy, lawyers their latest cases, and businessmen their latest acquisitions, but mathematicians cannot discuss their mathematics at all. And the more profound their work, the less understandable it is.
From the cradle to the grave is a school, so if what we call problems are lessons, we see life differently.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.