20 Years of Harry Potter

Journeys have a magical charm to them. As you are hurling from point A to B, your brain also chooses to race on vehicles of thought and imagination, conjuring worlds and characters. It was during one such bus journey in 2002, after having spent what seemed like a hour in my imaginary world that I took a break and peeped into the newspaper. There was a full page advertisement of a movie to be released. About a boy named Harry Potter. That is how I was introduced to the magical world that J K Rowling imagined, on a train journey, many many years ago.

As any potterhead would make an Unbreakable vow on, these books aren't just fantasies. They are the guiding lights casting lumos charm in dark times. They have been, for many of us, the Patronus to drive the Dementors away. Here are 20 quotes of my selection from the series to mark 20 years of the amazing world. 

1. Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. - Dumbledore
2. Youth can not know how age thinks and feels, but old men are guilty if they forget what it is to be young. - Dumbledore
3. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. - Dumbledore
4. I would assume that you were going to offer me refreshment, but the evidence so far suggests that that would be optimistic to the point of foolishness. - Dumbledore
5. Mysterious thing, Time. Powerful, and when meddled with, dangerous. - Dumbledore
6. Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. - Dumbledore
7. but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who never really sought it - Dumbledore
8. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. - Dumbledore
9. humans have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them. - Dumbledore
10. The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter. Or at least most minds are... It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly. - Severus Snape
11. Dementors force us to relive our very worst memories. Our pain becomes their power. - Remus Lupin
12. There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it. - Lord Voldemort
13. Ah, music, A magic beyond all we do here! - Dumbledore
14. 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. - Sirius Black
15. It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be. - Dumbledore
16. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open. - Dumbledore
17. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. - Sirius Black
18. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. - Dumbledore
19. Curiosity is not a sin.... But we should exercise caution with our curiosity... yes, indeed. - Dumbledore
20. It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies. - Dumbledore