--- title: Dumbledore Quote Came In Handy for British Politician description: One of Dumbledore's pieces of advice served as an apt description of the current relationship between Theresa May and Donald Trump. canonical: https://time.com/5044939/dumbledore-quote-parliament/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-02T01:30:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:00.387Z og:title: Dumbledore's Wise Words Came In Handy for British Politician og:description: Never underestimate the universal power of the wizard's advice og:url: https://time.com/5044939/dumbledore-quote-parliament/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dumbledore's Wise Words Came In Handy for British Politician twitter:description: Never underestimate the universal power of the wizard's advice twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Dumbledore's Wise Words Came In Handy for a British Politician  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 2, 2017 1:30 AM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 2, 2017 1:30 AM UTC Never underestimate the timeless wisdom of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. At least, one British politician certainly didn’t seem able to get [Dumbledore’s](http://time.com/5027234/fantastic-beasts-jude-law-dumbledore-crimes-grindelwald/) (and J.K. Rowling’s) sage words out of his head recently. During a segment of the BBC’s _Question Time_ this week, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Prisons, Probation, Rehabilitation and Sentencing (phew!) Sam Gyimah [spoke about](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/tory-mp-sam-gyimah-busted-stealing-dumbledores-lines-on-question-time-a8086366.html) his country’s leader Theresa May, and her recent bold [proclamations against](http://time.com/5042775/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-theresa-may-cancel-donald-trump-uk-state-visit/) the anti-Muslim [tweets](http://time.com/5042770/donald-trump-theresa-may-britain-first/) shared by U.S. president Donald Trump. “It takes great bravery to stand up to your enemies. It takes even more bravery to stand up to your friends,” Gyimah said of May’s decision to denounce Trump’s re-tweets of a leader of the far-right Britain First party. It is notably rare for this kind of animosity to exist between the [traditionally chummy](http://time.com/5042770/donald-trump-theresa-may-britain-first/) leaders of the two nations. Fans of Harry Potter will, of course, recognize that line as nearly identical to one of Dumbledore’s best. Spoken in [_The Sorcerer’s Stone_](http://time.com/4832670/harry-potter-j-k-rowling-20th-anniversary-tweet/), the benevolent headmaster coins the phrase while awarding points to [Neville Longbottom](http://time.com/4560538/harry-potter-neville-longbottom-cursed-child/), who attempted to stop Harry, Ron and Hermione from breaking school rules (to no avail. Hermione cast a leg-locker curse on him, unfortunately). Dumbledore’s exact wording: “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.” So, was Gyimah’s statement a coincidence — or an intentional nod to Rowling’s beloved character? He has not yet clarified his position on Harry Potter. But lately, it seems, sometimes the line between fiction and reality is can be blurred. > [](https://twitter.com/Dai%5FSlocs/status/936376822748602368) Dumbledore Quote Came In Handy for British Politician ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5044939/dumbledore-quote-parliament/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5044939/dumbledore-quote-parliament/"},"headline":"Dumbledore's Wise Words Came In Handy for a British Politician","datePublished":"2017-12-02T01:30:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:00.387Z","description":"\"It takes great bravery to stand up to your enemies.\"","url":"https://time.com/5044939/dumbledore-quote-parliament/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Harry Potter","Theresa May"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5044939/dumbledore-quote-parliament/","name":"Dumbledore's Wise Words Came In Handy for a British Politician"}}]}] ```