Quotes: Tom Riddle/Voldemort

Quotes by and about Lord Voldemort (Tom Marvolo Riddle)

From Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Hagrid to Harry: “Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.” (PS4)

Hagrid to Harry: “Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,” said Hagrid darkly. “There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one.” (PS5)

Quirrell’s lesson from Voldemort, as told to Harry: “There is no good and evil, there is only power…and those too weak to seek it.” (PS17)

“Don’t be a fool,” snarled the face. “Better save your own life and join me … or you’ll meet the same end as your parents …. they died begging me for mercy.” (PS17)

“How touching …” it hissed. “I always value bravery … Yes boy, your parents were brave…. I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight … but your mother needn’t have died … she was trying to protect you … Now give me the stone unless you want her to have died in vain.” (PS17)

From Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Tom Riddle to Harry: “Haven’t I already told you,” said Riddle quietly, “that killing Mudbloods doesn’t matter to me any more? For many months now, my new target has been — you.” (CS17)

Tom Riddle: “Voldemort,” said Riddle softly, “is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter.” (CS17)

Tom Riddle: “So, your mother tried to save you. Yes, that’s a powerful counter-charm. I can see now … there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the Great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike … but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That’s all I wanted to know.” (CS17)

Dumbledore to Harry: “He disappeared after leaving the school … traveled far and wide … sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable.” (CS18)

From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“Do not lie to me!” hissed the second voice. “I can always tell, Wormtail!” (GF1)

Arthur Weasley: “Ron, You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed,” said Mr. Weasley. “The terror it inspired … you have no idea, you’re too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you’re about to find inside….” Mr. Weasley winced. “Everyone’s worst fear … the very worst.” (GF9)

Sirius: “Imagine that Voldemort’s powerful now. You don’t know who his supporters are, you don’t know who’s working for him and who isn’t; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able stop themselves. You’re scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing … The Ministry of Magic’s in disarray, they don’t know what to do, they’re trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere … panic … confusion … that’s how it used to be.” (GF27)

Dumbledore looked very intensely at Harry for a moment, and then said, “I have a theory, no more than that … It is my belief that your scar hurts both when Lord Voldemort is near you, and when he is feeling a particularly strong surge of hatred.”
“But … why?”
“Because you and he are connected by the curse that failed,” said Dumbledore. “That is no ordinary scar.” (GF30)

“Voldy,” copyright Makani.Voldemort in the graveyard: “You know of course, that they have called this boy my downfall?” Voldemort said softly, his red eyes upon Harry, whose scar began to burn so fiercely that he almost screamed in agony. “You all know that on the night I lost my powers and my body, I tried to kill him. His mother died in the attempt to save him — and unwittingly provided him with a protection I admit I had not foreseen…. I could not touch the boy.”
Voldemort raised one of his long white fingers and put it very close to Harry’s cheek.
“His mother left upon him the traces of her sacrifice…. This is old magic, I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook it … but no matter, I can touch him now.” (GF33)

“I miscalculated, my friends, I admit it. My curse was deflected by the woman’s foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah … pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost … but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know … I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal – to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments worked … for I had not been killed, though the curse should have done it. Nevertheless, I was as powerless as the weakest creature alive…” (GF33)

“We bow to each other, Harry,” said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face upturned to Harry. “Come, the niceties will be observed…. Dumbledore would like you to show manners…. Bow to death, Harry….”
[…]
“Very good,” said Voldemort softly, and as he raised his wand the pressure bearing down on Harry lifted too. “And now you face me, like a man … straight-backed and proud, the way your father died…
And now — we duel.” (GF34)

From Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“How do you know what his plans are?” Harry asked quickly.
“Dumbledore’s got a shrewd idea,” said Lupin, “and Dumbledore’s shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate.”
“So what does Dumbledore reckon he’s planning?”
“Well firstly, he wants to build up his army again,” said Sirius. “In the old days he had huge numbers at his command; witches and wizards he’d bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit giants; well, they’ll be just one group he’s after.” (OP5)

Snape to Harry: “It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly. The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him. Only those skilled at Occlumency are able to shut down those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and to utter falsehoods in his presence without detection.” (OP24)

Snape: “The usual rules do not seem to apply to you, Potter. The curse that failed to kill you seems to have forged some kind of connection between you and the Dark Lord. The evidence suggests that at times, when your mind is most relaxed and vulnerable — when you are asleep, for instance — you are sharing the Dark Lord’s thoughts and emotions. The headmaster thinks it inadvisable for this to continue. He wishes me to teach you how to close your mind to the Dark Lord.” (OP24)

Harry to Snape: “How come I saw through the snake’s eyes if it’s Voldemort’s thoughts I’m sharing?
“Do not say the Dark Lord’s name!” spat Snape. (OP24)

Snape has just made Harry remember Cedric’s death: “I told you to empty yourself of emotion!”
“Yeah? Well, I’m finding that hard at the moment,” Harry snarled.
“Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!” said Snape savagely. “Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily — weak people, in other words — they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!” (OP24)

Snape to Harry: “That is just as well, Potter,” said Snape coldly, “because you are neither special nor important, and it is not up to you to find out what the Dark Lord is saying to his Death Eaters.”
“No — that’s your job, isn’t it?” Harry shot at him.
He had not meant to say it; it had burst out of him in temper. For a long moment they stared at each other, Harry convinced he had gone too far. But there was a curious, almost satisfied expression on Snape’s face when he answered.
“Yes, Potter,” he said, his eyes glinting. “That is my job.” (OP26)

Bellatrix to Harry: “You dare speak his name?” whispered Bellatrix.
“Yeah,” said Harry, maintaining his tight grip on the glass ball, expecting another attempts to bewitch it from him. “Yeah, I’ve got no problem saying Vol–”
“Shut your mouth!” Bellatrix shrieked. “You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood’s tongue, you dare –”
“Did you know he’s half-blood too?” said Harry recklessly. Hermione gave a little moan in his ear. “Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch, but his dad was a Muggle — or has he been telling you lot he’s pure-blood?”
“STUPIF–” (OP35)

Battle of the Dept. of Mysteries: “It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom,” said Dumbledore calmly. “The Aurors are on their way –” (OP36)

“You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?” called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. “Above such brutality, are you?”
“We both know there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom.” Dumbledore said calmly. “Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit – ”
“There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” snarled Voldemort.
“You are quite wrong,” said Dumbledore, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as though they were discussing the matter over drinks. Harry felt scared to see him walking along, undefended, shieldless. He wanted to cry out a warning, but his headless guard kept shunting him backward toward the wall, blocking his every attempt to get out from behind it. “Indeed your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness –” (OP36)

Dumbledore to Harry: “But I knew too where Voldemort was weak. And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated – to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother’s blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative.”
“She doesn’t love me,” said Harry at once. “She doesn’t give a damn –”
“But she took you,” Dumbledore cut across him. “She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you, and in doing so, she sealed the charm I placed upon you. Your mother’s sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you.”
“I still don’t –”
“While you can still call home the place where your mother’s blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge. You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can still call it home, there he cannot hurt you. Your aunt knows this. I explained what I had done in the letter I left, with you, on her doorstep. She knows that allowing you houseroom may well have kept you alive for the past fifteen years.” (OP37)

Dumbledore to Harry: “Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of a prophecy made shortly before your birth. He knew the prophecy had been made, though he did not know its full contents. He set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he was fulfilling the terms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his cost, that he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired. And so since his return to his body, and particularly since your extraordinary escape from him last year, he has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you.” (OP37)

Dumbledore to Harry: “He chose the boy he thought most likely to be a danger to him,” said Dumbledore. “And notice this, Harry. He chose, not the pure-blood (which according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard worth being or knowing), but the half-blood like himself. He saw himself in you before he had ever seen you, and in marking you with that scar, he did not kill you, as he intended, but gave you powers, and a future, which have fitted you to escape him not once, but four times so far — something that neither your parents, nor Neville’s parents, ever achieved.” (OP37)

Dumbledore to Harry: “There is a room in the Department of Mysteries,” interrupted Dumbledore, “that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”
Harry closed his eyes. If he had not gone to save Sirius, Sirius would not have died…. More to stave off the moment when he would have to think of Sirius again, Harry asked, without caring much about the answer, “The end of the prophecy … it was something about … ‘neither one can live…'”
“‘…while the other survives,'” said Dumbledore.
“So,” said Harry, dredging up the words from what he felt like a deep well of despair inside him, “so does that mean that … that one of us has got to kill the other one … in the end?”
“Yes,” said Dumbledore. (OP37)

The Daily Prophet article: HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS
In a brief statement Friday night, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named has returned to this country and is active once more.
“It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord — well, you know who I mean — is alive and among us again,” said Fudge, looking tired and flustered as he addressed reporters. “It is with almost equal regret that we report the mass revolt of the dementors of Azkaban, who have shown themselves averse to continuing in the Ministry’s employ. We believe that the dementors are currently taking direction from Lord — Thingy.
“We urge the magical population to remain vigilant. The Ministry is currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defense that will be delivered free to all Wizarding homes within the coming month.”
The Minister’s statement was met with dismay and alarm from the Wizarding community, which as recently as last Wednesday was receiving Ministry assurances that there was “no truth whatsoever in these persistent rumors that You-Know-Who is operating amongst us once more.”
Details of the events that led to the Ministry turn-around are still hazy, though it is believed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and a select band of followers (known as Death Eaters) gained entry to the Ministry of Magic itself on Thursday evening.
Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reinstated member of the International Confederation of Wizards, and reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, was unavailable for comment last night. He has insisted for a year that You-Know-Who was not dead, as was widely hoped and believed, but recruiting followers once more for a fresh attempt to seize power. Meanwhile the Boy Who Lived…. (REST NOT SHOWN) (OP38)

Original page date 23 January, 2005; last page update 23 February, 2007