This truly dangerous wizard shall perhaps be bent
on some project of which he anticipates great renown, and the certain
prospect of losing that renown and living out his life in obscurity will
seem to him more vivid, more aversive, than the unknown prospect of
destroying his country.
The Sorting Hat:
“You know—you aren’t letting yourself think it, but in some quiet corner
of your mind you know just exactly what you aren’t thinking—you know
that by far the simplest explanation for this unverbalizable fear of yours is
just the fear of losing your fantasy of greatness, of disappointing the people
who believe in you, of turning out to be pretty much ordinary, of flashing
and fading like so many other child prodigies...”
Quirrell:
The Sorting Hat: