Fantasy Advent Day 6: 7 favorite one-liners from the Harry Potter books

It's a truth universally acknowledged that fans will retain and quote things that they love. This can range from moments of unforgettable drama to things that made us laugh so hard we couldn't read the book for a little while. For today's Fantasy Advent activity, let's take a look at one great moment from each of the Harry Potter books.

1. "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

It's a peculiar phrase to pick for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as so much of the book is about survival and the quest for immortality, Dumbledore tells Harry this when the latter is recovering from his confrontation with Lord Voldemort and it's about Nicholas Flamel's preparation for a long-awaited death. This quote comes directly after the comment that death is like "going to bed after a very, very long day."

Dumbledore is both encouraging a life of meaning and action and destigmatizing the experience itself. Voldemort's name literally means "flight from death" and while it's normal to fear death, Dumbledore is preparing Harry from the beginning to see his life as something that can be laid down for the fight against evil. And he is encouraging Harry to be prepared.

2. "Never trust anything that can thnk for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain."

Arthur Weasley is sometimes just the best dad. He's less of a disciplinarian than his wife at times and altogether too enthusiastic for his own good at others. He also seems to have made sure his kids got a common-sense education when it comes to self-defense.

His job at the Ministry of Magic is anything but glamorous. He's got an office that is barely bigger than a broom closet and his raids consist in one chapter of "shrinking door keys and a biting kettle." His kids find his work both odd and a little boring, but we see them feeling proud of his hard work at any rate.

Arthur giving eleven-year-old Ginny advice on basic protection is both believable and wonderful. I don't think he truly expects her to run into as many sentient things as this advice implies, but he wants her to learn constant vigilance at an early age. It also begs the question of what he thinks of Siri.

3. "I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me."

All right, I'll admit that I usually quote this when being told how to behave myself. It's exactly the answer a teenager would give when perceived as a problematic child. On the other hand, to paraphrase Terry Pratchett in The Colour of Magic, some people are such trouble-seekers that they're the type "to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm...shouting" that all gods are jerks.

Whether Harry is the one to look for trouble - and to be fair, he went through the trap door and into the Chamber of Secrets before this - he's someone who should show respect towards his life. After all, he's the Boy Who Lived when others didn't have that luck.

4. " You have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy."

I could go on for pages about this philosophy expressed by Dumbledore during his eulogy for Cedric Diggory. It even goes on to urge the listener to "remember what happened to a boy who was good and kind, and brave." These are the last words we hear from Dumbledore until Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Since the Third Task, adults have been trying to elp Harry and the others facing the reality of Voldemort's return to find coping mechanisms and ways to find strength. Hagrid's confidence that they'll be ready to meet whatever comes helps. But Dumbledore issues a call to action that only takes the space of a thought for some.

5. "The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters."

As a huge fan of Sirius Black, I had to mention him in this compilation. This quote is during a discussion of Professor Umbridge and wryly observes that it's not always easy to recognize an evil person at first glance. And Harry, having been ricked by Tom Riddle and taught quite a lot by a Death Eater masquerading as Mad-Eye Moody, knows this fairly well. He would probably feel better if it were easier to tell the difference at times.

But Sirius grew up with complicated relationships as we see every time he hosts someone at Grimmauld Place. He makes this observation as someone who has lived through a lot of suffering to learn the lesson. We would all do well to keep absolute judgment out of our relationships with other people and ourselves.

6. "People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right."

Phew, Dumbledore knows his stuff. I always wonder if this is a reference to his relationship with Aberforth or a callback to how badly things went with Gellert Grindelwald or if it's simply a lesson learned after many years in the Wizengamot. But it's not hard for many of us to remember times when we had bitter pills to swallow or fences that seemed beyond all hope of repair.

The message here is about knowing the difference between "I told you " and "I didn't know." In Percy's case, it's hard to make an argument for him being uninformed but he was, by his own later admission, a fool. He turned a blind eye because it let him stay in a position of privilege and have the illusion of safety. We need to remember this lesson when we have our own instances of being wrong or wronged.

7. "Try for some remorse."

Hermione describes remorse as "you have to really feel what you've done" and says it can destroy someone. But it is the only way to reverse a Horcrux. It's interesting thing for Harry, before he defeats Voldemort, tries to extend some healing to the man who split his soul through an act of evil seven times.

Hopefully, none of us will ever be so past feeling that we refuse to feel remorse for our actions, but we can applyt his on a much lower-key level It's on eof those things where we can choose between what is right and what is easy. The first step pack in a change of heart is to recognize the wrongness of what you've done, but the next is to have this remorse. It isn't as out of reach as it sometimes seems.