Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.

The novel’s text was not searched in this run (no copyrighted corpus of Rowling’s novels is stored), so absence from the novel is not established here. The film origin rests on secondary sources only: Maciej Kuster (Maska 33, 2017, p. 9 n. 1, a page-image scan whose text could not be reproduced in revision) is reported to identify the wording with the 2011 film and to say it is not in the books. A screenplay PDF credited to Steve Kloves (p. 116, scene 333) was cited by an earlier run but could not be fetched again, so it is not relied on and no screenwriter is named as real author. The earliest explicit attribution to Rowling and the novel found is the Christian Science Monitor slide of 30 July 2013, not a claim that no earlier miscredit exists. The film was not watched.

1. 2011Earliest found · credited to Albus Dumbledore in the film scripted by Steve KlovesKuster, as an earlier run read him, identifies this circulated wording with Dumbledore in the 2011 film adaptation and says it is not in the books; the film was not examined and the article could not be re-read in the revision.Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.Maciej Kuster, Magia, czyli o tym, co spaja świat przedstawiony powieści o Harrym Potterze albo o kursie galeona względem funta szterlinga, Maska 33 (2017), p. 9, epigraph and footnote 1. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 30 July 2013Credited to J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsThe Christian Science Monitor includes the film dialogue in a Rowling birthday quotation collection and credits Rowling and the Deathly Hallows novel title without identifying the film or screenwriter.Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.Casey Lee, JK Rowling: 15 quotes on her birthday, slide 1: Words are magic, The Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2013. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

Circulated as a line of Dumbledore’s from Deathly Hallows. A secondary source (Kuster, 2017) is reported to place it in the 2011 film adaptation and to say it is absent from the books; the Christian Science Monitor in 2013 put it in a birthday collection of Rowling quotations, citing the novel’s title without distinguishing the adaptation.

Language can hurt people and can also help repair the harm; Dumbledore presents that double power as a kind of magic.

Passed on as Rowling’s own statement or as a sentence from her Deathly Hallows novel. No passage in the novel has been found; the film origin rests on secondary sources, and the screenplay could not be re-read.

Power, Morality, Wisdom

• Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.
• It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
• Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.
• Experience that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. (misattributed) C. S. Lewis
• Nature’s wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance. Epicurus

• ruj.uj.edu.pl/server/api/core/bitstreams/c5707795-80bb-4062-a2db-9a0f124f40c6/content
• csmonitor.com/Arts-Culture/Books/2013/0730/JK-Rowling-15-quotes-on-her-birthday/Words-are-magic
• warnerbros.com/movies/harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows-part-2

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” Attributed to J. K. Rowling. No. It is not in Rowling’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/words-are-our-most-inexhaustible-source-of-magic/ (checked 30 October 2026).

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