How we cite our quotes: (chapter.paragraph)
Quote #4
"My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died," said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore. (13.167)
OK, evil as he is, we can't help but feel sorry for the young pipsqueak Riddle here. He is homeless, he's an orphan, and, here, we can deduce that he thinks about his parents often, that he has perhaps wondered why they left him. We see him convince himself that his mother was only human and, therefore, incapable of saving her own life, and yet we know the truth. We sympathize here with a little boy who can't imagine why his mom would leave him. Has Voldemort ever known love?
Quote #5
"I went into the girl's bathroom just before I came in here and there were about a dozen girls in there, including Romilda Vane, trying to decide how to slip you a love potion." (15.13)
Mad crushes are not the only obstacles getting in the way of friendships, Quidditch practice, and life at Hogwarts. There's something a little troubling about the fact that these girls manipulate love via potions bought at Fred and George Weasley's joke shop. When compared with the story of Merope's bewitching of Tom Riddle, Sr., we know that love potions are not to be laughed at – they can cause serious trouble when they interfere with real emotions and feelings.
Quote #6
"The old argument," he said softly. "But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore."
"Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places," suggested Dumbledore. (20.172-173)
Where has Voldemort been looking for love? Has he been looking for love? This is an interesting moment, because, instead of laughing in Dumbledore's face, Voldemort seems to earnestly argue that love doesn't exist. He is being quite serious here. There is no such thing as love in Voldemort's world. In examining the exact words he uses here, it seems he is not choosing to believe love doesn't exist; he knows it does not exist. These two wizards could not be more different, and could not have a more different understanding of how the world works.