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Voldemort / You-Know-Who
Professor Quirrell is an antagonist in the novel and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Quirrell is a young, stuttering professor whom Harry first meets in Diagon Alley. When Harry sees Quirrell at Hogwarts, the professor is sporting a new purple turban (under which readers ultimately learn is Voldemort’s face). Quirrell puts up a front as a nervous, rather ineffective teacher, but behind the scenes he is coldly calculating how to do Voldemort’s bidding. He is so effective at this ruse that Harry spends most of the novel believing that Professor Snape, who has a more threatening presence, is responsible for most of the things that Quirrell has done. By the end of the novel, it becomes clear that it was Quirrell who tried to rob Gringotts bank to get the Sorcerer’s Stone; Quirrell set a troll loose in the dungeon on Halloween; Quirrell jinxed Harry’s broom to try to kill him; and Quirrell was the one who tricked Hagrid into telling him how to get past the three-headed dog guarding the Stone. At the end of the novel Quirrell reveals his motivation, declaring that he has chosen to follow Voldemort because Voldemort showed him that there is no such thing as good and evil, only power. Thus, Quirrell becomes associated with greed and ambition, to the point that he is unable to touch Harry without being burned because Harry is marked by Lily’s love, humility, and sacrifice. This dichotomy puts Quirrell resoundingly on the side of evil, and his defeat is a great victory for Harry.
Professor Quirrell Quotes in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone quotes below are all either spoken by Professor Quirrell or refer to Professor Quirrell. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“See, there was this wizard who went…bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. […] This wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin’ fer followers. Got ’em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o’ his power, ’cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry.”
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Chapter 17
Quotes
“A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.”
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“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign… to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.”
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“You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone — find it, but not use it — would be able to get it, otherwise they’d just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life.”
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Professor Quirrell Quotes in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone quotes below are all either spoken by Professor Quirrell or refer to Professor Quirrell. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
“See, there was this wizard who went…bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. […] This wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin’ fer followers. Got ’em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o’ his power, ’cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry.”
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Chapter 17
Quotes
“A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.”
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“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign… to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.”
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“You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone — find it, but not use it — would be able to get it, otherwise they’d just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life.”
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