A pewter goblet spilling violet ink onto a saucer beside a cracked glass lens on a dark purple background.

Original artwork, not a still

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince  ·  2005

J.K. Rowling

“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being–forgive me–rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.”

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

A humble-brag with a wink. The speaker admits to making errors like anyone else, then adds that being cleverer than most makes those errors proportionally bigger. It plays on the idea that ability scales the size of mistakes, not just successes.

Context reviewed

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