The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.
End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
I will take the Ring”, he said, “though I do not know the way.
It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to
After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of ‘truth’, and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear.
We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.
It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
A King will have his way in his own hall, be it folly or wisdom.
Indeed if fish had fish-lore and Wise-fish, it is probable that the business of anglers would be very little hindered.
Don’t trust your head, Samwise, it is not the best part of you.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.
Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth.
There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.
It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s risingI came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing.To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand-—that and such hope as I bring.
Being a cheerful hobbit, he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
He never had any real hope in the affair from the beginning;but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope,as long as despair could be postponed.
Above all shadows rides the Sunand Stars for ever dwell:I will not say the Day is done,nor bid the Stars farewell.
I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory.
The day will bring hope for me,” said Aragorn. “Is it not said that no foe has ever taken the Hornburg, if men defended it?””So the minstrels say,” said Éomer.”Then let us defend it, and hope!
Then hope unlooked-for came so suddenly to Eomer’s heart, and with it the bite of care and fear renewed, that he said no more, but turned and went swiftly from the hall.
I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.”So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gateAnd though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when IShall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I goTo heal my heart and drown my woeRain may fall, and wind may blowAnd many miles be still to goBut under a tall tree will I lieAnd let the clouds go sailing by
The world was fair, the mountains tallIn Elder Days before the fall…
Oh! That was poetry!” said Pippin. “Do you really mean to start before the break of day?
Far over misty mountains coldTo dungeons deep and caverns oldWe must away, ere break of day,To find our long-forgotten gold.
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.
grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mould of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps.
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
We set out to save the Shire, Sam and it has been saved – but not for me.
Then holding the star aloft and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes.
This thing all things devours:Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;Gnaws iron, bites steel;Grinds hard stones to meal;Slays king, ruins town,And beats high mountain down.
What do you fear, lady?” [Aragorn] asked. “A cage,” [Éowyn] said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.
A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.
This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away.
I fear I am beyond your comprehension. – Gandalf the White
Then the dwarves forgot their joy and their confident boasts of a moment before and cowered down in fright. Smaug was still to be reckoned with. It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.
A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.
At that moment there was a knock on the door, and Sam came in. He ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly and shyly. He stroked it gently and then he blushed and turned hastily away.
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.
The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.
It needs but one foe to breed a war, and those who have not swords can still die upon them.
Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts.
The grey-rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you’ve done since you left home.
They made for his noise far quicker than he had expected. They were frightfully angry. Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever like being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course, is insulting to anybody.
the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
We have had enough of the old men and the money-counters!” And people further off took up the cry: “Up Bowman, and down with the moneybags,
As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light.
Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful.
He has led us in here against our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to himself.
He did not falter, as long as there was a path that led toward his goal.
A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one’s age group. It comes from reading books above one.
[Hobbits] love peace and quiet and a good tilled earth.
In this Music [the singing of the angels in harmony] the World was begun; for Iluvatar made visible the song of the Ainur,and they beheld it as a light in the darkness.
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.
His rage passes description – the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted.
Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars, not if you care for such things.
But have a care! It is a bitter blade, and steel serves only those that can wield it. It will cut your hand as willingly as aught else.
True courage is knowing not when to take a life, but to save one.
All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.J.R.R. Tolkien
The love of Arda was set in your hearts by Ilúvatar, and he does not plant to no purpose.
I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler. -Frodo Baggins
All that is gold does not glitter.Not all those who wander are lost:The old that is strong does not wither.Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.
How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand… there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep.
The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.
I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold.
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Lightthrough whom is splintered from a single Whiteto many hues, and endlessly combinedin living shapes that move from mind to mind.
The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and be able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water.
Is there any pleasure on earth as great as the circle of Christian friends by a good fire?
There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.
Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.
That’s what I meant,’ said Pippin. ‘We hobbits ought to stick together, and we will. I shall go, unless they chain me up. There must be someone with intelligence in the party.
It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.
A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!
All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!
You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end.
As the story grew, it put down roots into the past and threw out unexpected branches .
He knew that all the hazards and perils were now drawing together to a point: the next day would be a day of doom, the day of final effort or disaster, the last gasp.
Sam was the only member of the party who had not been over the river before. He had a strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by: his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.
Until the coming of another day of fear, they walked in silence with bowed heads.
A fair vision had welcomed him in this land of disease.
May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
They themselves do not see the world of light as we do, but our shapes cast shadows in their minds, which only the noon sun destroys.
For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret, and he expended his art in making keen that touch upon the heart which sorrows have that are both poignant and remote.
If all the seven stones were laid out before me now, I should shut my eyes and put my hands in my pockets.
Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed for myself,’ said Denethor. ‘Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse lay in the dregs?
Against delay. Against the way that seems easier. Against refusal of the burden that is laid on me. Against – well, if it must be said, against trust in the strength and truth of Men.
Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror….
Old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.
Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” ~ Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkein ~ The Hobbit)
All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost.
Bilbo was sadly reflecting that adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine…
But our back is to legends and we are coming home. I suppose this is the first taste of it.”There is a long road yet,’ said Gandalf.’But it is the last road,’ said Bilbo.
The stars are far brighterThan gems without measure,The moon is far whiterThan silver in treasure;The fire is more shiningOn hearth in the gloamingThan gold won by mining,So why go a-roaming?
Few can see wither their road will lead them, till they comes to it’s end. – Gimli
I pity snails, and all that carry their homes on their backs.
It seemed like all the way to tomorrow and over it to the days beyond.
Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better.
As they sang the hobbit felt in love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.
Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.
And now leave me in peace for a bit! I don’t want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think!””Good Heavens!” said Pippin. “At breakfast?
I may be a burglar…but I’m an honest one, I hope, more or less.
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,It lies behind stars and under hills,And empty holes it fills,It comes first and follows after,Ends life, kills laughter.
Why O why did I ever leave my hobbit-hole?” said poor Mr. Baggins, bumping up and down on Bombur’s back.
Rover did not know in the least where the moon’s path led to, and at present he was much too frightened and excited to ask, and anyway he was beginning to get used to extraordinary things happening to him.
You certainly usually find something if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.
They were at the end of their journey, but as far as ever, it seemed, from the end of their quest.
This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils — that has been more than any baggins deserves.
What shall we do, what shall we do! Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves is like out of the frying pan and into the fire!
I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can’t turn back.
And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go. It was an evil fate.
How shall a man judge what to do in such times?”As he ever has judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear…It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in th Golden Wood as in his own house.
In account after account of exorcisms the demonic voices will propound nihilism of one variety or another.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.
Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true.
Now and again he spoke to those that served him and thanked them in their own language. They smiled at him and said laughing: ‘Here is a jewel among hobbits!
It [discovering Finnish] was like discovering a wine-cellar filled with bottles of amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me.
please don’t cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean.
Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more bitterness and shame for a man’s heart than to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned.
But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.
Smeagol won’t grub for roots and carrotses and – taters. What’s taters,precious, eh, what’s taters?””Po-ta-toes!” said Sam.
When he heard there was nothing to eat, he sat down and wept… “Why did I ever wake up!” he cried.
Some who have read the book, or at any rate reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no reason to complain, since I have similar opinions of their work, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.
Don’t the great tales never end?””No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.
We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful.
But perhaps you could call her perilous because she’s so strong in herself. You , you could dash yourself to pieces on her, like a ship on a rock, or drown yourself, like a Hobbit in a river, but neither rock nor river would be to blame.
But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
His knowledge was deep, but his pride has grown with it.
Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men. -On Fairy Stories
A story must be told or there’ll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.
Well, you can go on looking forward,” said Gandalf. “There may be many unexpected feasts ahead of you.
There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet.
Touching your cap to the squire may be damn bad for the squire, but it’s damn good for you.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
The more ‘life’ a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.
You could call her perilous because she was so strong in herself.
Clothes are but little loss, if you escape from drowning.
No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate.
His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril he cried aloud: ‘I’m coming Mr. Frodo!
Master of the Dark Shadow. For I also, Niniel, had my darkness, in which dear things were lost; but now I have overcome it, I deem.
Sleepiness seemed to be creeping out of the ground and up their legs, and falling softly out of the air upon theirheads and eyes.
Frodo! Mr. Frodo, my dear!’ cried Sam, tears almost blinding him. ‘It’s Sam, I’ve come!’ He half lifted his master and hugged him to his breast.
Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.
I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,” said Sam. “And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart.
Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.
Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankless sea
The whole thing is quite hopeless, so it’s no good worrying about tomorrow. It probably won’t come.
Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!
Where are Haldad my father, and Haldad my brother? If the king of Doriath fears a friendship between Haleth and those who have devoured her kin, then the ways of the Eldar are strange to Men.
This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.
Then shouldering their burdens, they set off, seeking a path that would bring them over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, and down into the Land of Shadow.
Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)—Gandalf came by.
So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
Yes, I am white now,’ said Gandalf. ‘Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.
But the sons of Men die indeed, and leave the world; wherefore they are called the Guests or the Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Illúvatar, which as time wears even the Powers shall envy.
Many are the strange chances of the world,’ said Mithrandir, ‘and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.
There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery.
A traitor may betray himself and do good he does not intend.
If you’re going to have a complicated story, you must work to a map; otherwise you can never make a map of it afterwards.
Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do no be too eager to deal out death in judgment.
I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril.
Getting rid of dragons is not at all in my line, but I will do my best to think about it. Personally I have no hopes at all, and wish I was safe back at home.
If by my life or death I can protect you, I will.
These folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart we shall afflict them in all ways that we can.
A light like the glint of water on dewy grass flashed from under her feet as she danced.
Perhaps it is better not to tell what you wish. if you cannot have it.
Seek for the Sword that was brokenIn Imladris it dwells;There shall be counsels takenStronger than Morgul-spells.There shall be shown a tokenThat Doom is near at hand,For Isuldur’s Bane shall waken,And the halfling forth shall stand.
The ‘Elves’ are ‘immortal’, at least as far as this world goes: and hence are concerned rather with the griefs and burdens of deathlessness in time and change, than with death.
[But] I fear that in the individual lives of all but a few, the balance is in debit – we do so little that is positive good, even if we negatively avoid what is actively evil.
No one, I fancy, would discredit a story that the Archbishop of Canterbury slipped on a banana skin merely because he found that a similar comic mishap had been reported of many people, and especially of elderly gentlemen of dignity.
He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can.
Of the twelve companions of Thorin, ten remained. Fili and Kili had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother’s elder brother.
But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.
But whenever I say that I will do this or that, it looks very different when the time comes.
Float beyond the world of trees. Out into the whispering breeze, past the rushes, past the weeds, past the marsh’s waving reeds.
I could not ‘make’ you–except by force, which would break your mind.
In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.
All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.
The chief purpose of life, for any of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.
those who will defend authority against rebellion must not themselves rebel.
There isn’t no call to go talking of pushing and pulling. Boats are quite tricky enough for those that sit still without looking for further for the cause of trouble.