Books

J.K. Rowling Can Teach Us All About Resistance

by Sadie Trombetta
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It's been over a month since the American people's nonstop protest of President Trump's administration started, and with more official marches, protests, and strikes getting added to the calendar everyday, it doesn't seem like this movement will be stopping any time soon. If you're starting to feel a little activist fatigue yourself, look to these J.K. Rowling quotes that will inspire you to resist, because no matter how tired you might feel, the fight isn't over yet.

From her Harry Potter series to her commencement speeches to her everyday advice on Twitter, J.K. Rowling is overflowing with inspiration, and that is exactly what we could all use right about now. The last few contentious weeks have been filled with political unrest and organized dissent, and all of the necessary resistance can easily start to feel exhausting. But if Harry Potter and his author has taught readers anything, it's that even when you're tired, hungry, and beat down, good can't afford to give into evil. Like Dumbledore said, “It is important to fight and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay though never quite eradicated.”

Ready to keep the fight going for the A Day Without A Woman general strike and beyond? Here are 15 J.K. Rowling quotes that will help inspire you to keep resisting. Remember, Dumbledore's Army never rests.

1

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

2

“The truth [...] It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

3

“Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.”

4

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

5

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

6

“I believe in free will. Of those that, like us, are in a privileged situation at least. For you, for me: people who are living in western society, people who are not repressed, who are free. We can choose. The things go largely like you want them to go. You control your own life. Your own will is extremely powerful.”

Interview, "The Volkskrant"

7

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

8

“Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”

9

"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change."

10

"Ask for help. Don't fight alone."

11

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.”

12

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”

13

“We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.”

14

"Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy."

15

“Not my daughter, you bitch!”