There isn’t a clean answer to what makes the Harry Potter book series so inspiring to millions of people around the world – including plenty of grown adults who first met it as kids. The fandom is enormous, spans generations at this point, and J. K. Rowling still earns handsomely from it even though the book and film franchise wrapped up well over a decade ago. Motivational speakers tend to look for inspiration everywhere, so the obvious move was to ask a die-hard Potter fan, Arunima, to explain the appeal. Here’s what she had to say.
I wouldn’t even know where to begin or end when it comes to why the Harry Potter book series is such an inspiration for me. It’s an inseparable part of my childhood, my reading habit, and who I am. I’ve grown up fangirling, crying, laughing and loving all of it – the story, the characters, everything. Even today, when I read it, something inspiring jumps out at me. The novelty never really dies.
Writing about every inspiring lesson from Harry Potter would take a lot more than a blog post. So here are 7 of the most inspiring lessons from the series, the kind that land especially hard for an older audience.
True happiness is devoid of all desires
That sounds big. And I didn’t even realise the book talks about it until a year ago. It’s right there in the very first book, when Dumbledore tells Harry about the Mirror of Erised – a magical mirror that shows you the deepest, most desperate desires of your heart. Only a truly happy person looks into the mirror and sees themselves exactly as they are. Everyone else sees their reflection standing alongside whatever they long for most.
I think it’s a genuinely deep lesson about spirituality, tucked into a book written for 11-year-olds. The Mirror of Erised (desire spelled backwards) shows a different reflection to everyone who looks into it. Desire, and how a person sees themselves, isn’t universal – it all comes from within.
And while on the subject, Dumbledore might be one of the most spiritually advanced characters in the whole plot. He knows his flaws, has worked through them, made peace with his sorrows, and still manages to carry out his duty right to the end.
Courage is difficult
Yet it’s what makes you win all your battles.
Anyone who’s read the books knows courage is one of the central themes of Harry Potter’s story – not just his own bravery, but that of his parents, his friends, and his allies. It’s what makes the story so brilliant.
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The books teach us that courage is often difficult to muster. Whether it’s confronting friends who are doing something stupid, or walking into a forest expecting to die to protect the people you love – fear doesn’t go away. But bravery means working and walking through that fear anyway, because the outcome you’re after matters more than how scared you feel.
That’s exactly why I’m such a huge fan of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dobby, Dumbledore, Snape, Neville, Luna, and Sirius – all the brave characters J. K. Rowling wrote. They’re fierce in their love, their friendships, their will to survive and to save the people they care about – and most importantly, they’re not afraid to be afraid. Harry Potter taught us that courage isn’t the absence of fear, and it isn’t about fearlessness at all. Mostly, it’s about working through the things that scare you and coming out the other side, if not on a broomstick.
Love is everything
Even when the people you love aren’t with you, they’re always there with you.
The way Harry finds his father with him in moments of desperate need, the way Lily lives on inside Snape, the way Ginny is ready to let go, the way Molly protects her children, the way Dobby takes a dagger to the heart to protect his friends – it’s an enormous amount of love, packed across all seven books.
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Harry Potter teaches us that the pain we feel for the people we love should become our strength to do the right thing, not an excuse to lose our way. Rowling is a genuinely brilliant writer, and the way she weaves non-obsessive love through the story is worth noticing. As she puts it in her own way – it’s okay to love and lose. Life goes on. Let that love make you better, not bitter. Look at how Hermione puts everything into saving the wizarding world even after Ron leaves, how Ginny is ready to let go of Harry, how Snape finds peace as long as Lily’s soul is at peace – and learn from it.
(For more, check out these inspirational Harry Potter quotes.)
Don’t forget to put on the lights
This one’s actually a movie line, not a line from the books – surprising, right? But it’s one of the most inspiring Harry Potter quotes out there regardless. Time and again in the books, Rowling stresses the importance of light and warmth in life, magic or otherwise.
Whether it’s fighting the dark, damp, twisted Devil’s Snare, the cold and frightening inferi, or the dementors – the very personification of depression – fire is what you need. Let that fire live inside you.
That metaphor holds up beautifully. All it takes is a little fire to fight the darkness, inside or out. Fighting depression (read: dementors) is genuinely hard, and one of the few things that reliably helps is holding on to good, happy memories. Turning that simple idea into powerful magic is a wonderful way of telling kids – and adults – that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only someone remembers to turn on the light.
(Image courtesy: Saying images)
Don’t judge people
I learned most of these lessons later, reading Harry Potter as a grown-up. As a kid, it was mostly about the magic. It took much longer to appreciate how beautifully these books were actually written.
Don’t judge the giant, rough, bearded man – he might be one of the kindest, most tender souls around. The villain who can’t empathise might simply have never known love. Someone glorious could be carrying the darkest of pasts. And the bitter, strict teacher might be the most forlorn and unlucky in love of them all.
Harry Potter taught me it’s okay to give everyone a chance to tell their story. It’s easy to judge too quickly. The world would be a much better place if people just stepped back, stopped assuming, and reached for a little veritaserum (truth potion) once in a while.
There is more to life than not dying
I came across this on a fandom page once – Voldemort, the villain of the story, died at 71. Dumbledore died at 116. If Voldemort hadn’t spent so much energy trying to stay immortal, he likely would have lived much longer, and far more happily.
The story is really about the beauty and importance of a pure soul – one that isn’t maimed by evil or murder, and knows how to repent for its mistakes.
That feels like a valuable lesson for everyone. People worry so much about dying that they forget to actually live, and to love the people they live alongside. That fear of death often drives people to do foolish, even abhorrent things. Look at Voldemort, his soul splintered into eight pieces, and how he finally meets his match. No matter how powerful someone is, no matter their possessions or intelligence, death eventually comes for everyone in the same mundane way. Everyone vanishes into the same nothingness in the end.
It’s better to leave behind a legacy people remember fondly than to become the nightmare people want to forget.
Lessons in equality
Rowling deserves real credit for writing some of the strongest female characters in literature. Harry Potter is one of the more quietly feminist novels out there. Men and women in the wizarding and witchcraft community hold equal standing – equal say in inheritance, in work, in sports, in academia, everywhere.
Not many people notice this unless it’s pointed out: in the Harry Potter world, there are no separate men’s and women’s Quidditch teams. Selection comes down to talent, not gender.
And then there’s Hermione. She’s an inspiration – a striking combination of intelligence, bravery, beauty and kindness. Not only the smartest witch of her generation, but brave enough to step into battle when it’s needed, and just as capable of focusing on her career when things settle down.
More role models like that would be a good thing – people who know how to go after what they set their hearts on.
Just the tip of the iceberg
These 7 lessons, and the inspirational Harry Potter quotes woven through them, are really just the tip of the iceberg. There’s plenty more to say as a lifelong Potterhead who owns the box set, the illustrated editions, and the e-books too.
I once read J. K. Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure,” and it clarified a lot about what it takes to write something like Harry Potter. Plenty of people still think of it as just a children’s book. Maybe it is – and if this is what kids are growing up with, they’ll likely turn into better adults for it. For the adults who grew up with it too, Harry Potter is a love story none of us are quite ready to let go of.
The books are inspiring, lovely, and a lot of fun to read. And no true fan would leave out the obvious – they’re better than the movies. 🙂
Do read them. And for more great reading recommendations, here’s a list of fantastic books for your reading habit.
Read – for Fawkes’ sake. 🙂 (True Potterheads will get that.)
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