"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 to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared"
About this Quote
Rowling frames imagination as something bigger than a creativity engine; she sells it as a moral technology. The sentence starts with a familiar prestige claim - imagination fuels invention - then pivots to the real target: empathy. That swerve matters. Innovation flatters the individual (the lone inventor, the bright mind). Empathy implicates the reader. It turns imagination from a private gift into a civic obligation: if you can picture what you have not lived, you lose excuses for indifference.
The subtext is a defense of fiction as more than entertainment. Coming from a novelist whose career is built on transporting millions into other lives, it is also self-legitimating: stories do not just distract; they train the emotional muscles that politics and daily life keep atrophied. The phrasing "arguably most transformative and revelatory" signals an author aware of competing narratives about imagination (as escapism, as childishness) and eager to upgrade its status. She is staking a claim for narrative as an ethical instrument.
Context sharpens the stakes. Rowling has often tied her public persona to causes of tolerance and to the idea that reading builds compassion; this line fits that tradition of literary humanism, common in commencement-speech rhetoric. It also quietly draws a boundary: to be fully human is to practice imaginative empathy. That is inspiring, but also a little accusatory. If cruelty thrives on narrowing who counts as real, her point is that imagination can widen the circle - provided we choose to use it that way, not just to invent new gadgets or new worlds.
The subtext is a defense of fiction as more than entertainment. Coming from a novelist whose career is built on transporting millions into other lives, it is also self-legitimating: stories do not just distract; they train the emotional muscles that politics and daily life keep atrophied. The phrasing "arguably most transformative and revelatory" signals an author aware of competing narratives about imagination (as escapism, as childishness) and eager to upgrade its status. She is staking a claim for narrative as an ethical instrument.
Context sharpens the stakes. Rowling has often tied her public persona to causes of tolerance and to the idea that reading builds compassion; this line fits that tradition of literary humanism, common in commencement-speech rhetoric. It also quietly draws a boundary: to be fully human is to practice imaginative empathy. That is inspiring, but also a little accusatory. If cruelty thrives on narrowing who counts as real, her point is that imagination can widen the circle - provided we choose to use it that way, not just to invent new gadgets or new worlds.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Speech: 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination' (Harvard Commencement Address), J. K. Rowling, Harvard University, June 5, 2008 — transcript contains the cited passage about imagination and empathy. |
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