7 Quick Takes Friday - July 15, 2011

Thanks to Jen for hosting.

I was going to do a regular ol' Quick Takes today, but then I read Rebecca's Quick Takes about her favorite Harry Potter moments. She's inspired me to present my favorite quotes from each book. Since I'm at work and don't have access to my books, I took advantage of WikiQuote's resources.

(Note: I won't be able to see HP 7-II until Tuesday afternoon, so no spoilers in the comments! Also, if you are one of the few people who have not yet read the series but intend to, the quotes below may contain spoilers.) 

Elanor, five months old, rocking her Harry Potter glasses

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (one of these days I really need to do a rant on how idiotic it was that the title was changed for U.S. publication because, apparently, U.S. readers are too dumb to know or understand what "Philosopher" means...ahem):

• "Humans do have a knack for choosing precisely those things which are worst for them." - Albus Dumbledore

• "'The truth.' Dumbledore sighed. 'It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.'"

• "Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love." - Albus Dumbledore

  (Obviously, The Man With Two Faces was my favorite chapter...)

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

• "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." - Ron Weasley

• "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." - Arthur Weasley

• "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." - Albus Dumbledore

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

• "I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me." - Harry Potter

• "If you made a better rat than a human, Peter, that's not much to boast about." - Sirius Black

• "What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter." - Sirius Black

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

• "Remember Cedric. Remember, 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, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory." - Albus Dumbledore

• "Mrs. Weasley set the potion down on the bedside cabinet, bent down, and put her arms around Harry. He had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother." [This bit makes me cry... every. single. time.]

• "What's comin' will come, and we'll meet it when it does." - Rubeus Hagrid

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

• "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode." - Ron Weasley
  
  "Ron, just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have." - Hermione Granger

• "[To Harry, about the Thestrals] I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. Don't worry, you're just as sane as I am." - Luna Lovegood

• Fred Weasley: "Give her hell from us, Peeves." 
  
  Narrator: "And Peeves, who Harry had never seen take an order from a student before swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset."

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

• "Don’t you see? Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! 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!" - Albus Dumbledore

• "Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right." - Hermione Granger

• "But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world."

• (Honorable mention - this part cracks me up every time!): [Harry] Yes. [Snape] Yes, sir. [Harry] There's no need to call me "sir", Professor.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

• Minister Scrimgeour: "You may wear that scar like a crown, Potter, but it is not up to a seventeen year-old boy to tell me how to do my job! It's time you learned some respect!"
  
  Harry: "It's time you earned it."

• "Luna had decorated her bedroom ceiling with five beautifully painted faces: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville. They were not moving as the portraits at Hogwarts moved, but there was a certain magic about them all the same; Harry thought they breathed. What appeared to be fine golden chains wove around the pictures, linking them together, but after examining them for a minute or so, Harry realized that the chains were actually one word, repeated a thousand times in golden ink: friends...friends...friends...friends... Harry felt a great rush of affection for Luna."

• "It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it." - Albus Dumbledore