J.K. Rowling
Author of the Harry Potter novels.
SpeechesThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
Quotes
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 11:41 · Harvard Gazette
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And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:24 · Harvard Gazette
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It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:37 · Harvard Gazette
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Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:51 · Harvard Gazette
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So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 13:40 · Harvard Gazette
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As delivered So, given a time-turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 14:00 · Harvard Gazette
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Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 14:32 · Harvard Gazette
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As delivered Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 22:10 · Harvard Gazette
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As delivered We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.