“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.”

— J.K. Rowling, Harvard University Commencement Address (5 June 2008)

About J.K. Rowling

Born 1965

British author of the 'Harry Potter' series, who gave the Harvard commencement address 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure' in 2008.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”

“It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies; but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”

“Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”