βNot all who wander are lost.β
β J. R. R. Tolkien
βAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.β
βAll 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.β
βThere is some good in this world, and itβs worth fighting for.β
βCourage is found in unlikely places.β
βThe world is not in your books and maps, itβs out there.β
βWho cannot understand your silence, cannot understand your words.β
βSome believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.β
βNo victory without suffering.β
βThe greatest adventure is what lies ahead.β
βEven the smallest person can change the course of the future.β
βIf more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.β
βFrom the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.β
βAbove all shadows rides the sun.β
βMay it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.β
βDo 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?β
βThe Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.β
βItβs a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you donβt keep your feet, thereβs no knowing where you might be swept off to.β
βIf you do not believe in a personal God, the question: βWhat is the purpose of life?β is unaskable and unanswerable.β
βMany that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life.β
βIt is no bad thing celebrating a simple life.β
βMay the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.β
βEnd? No, the journey doesnβt end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.β
βIt is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.β
βHome is now behind you, the world is ahead!β
βOne Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.β
βDeeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.β
βTrue education is a kind of never ending story β a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness.β
βFor even the very wise cannot see all ends.β
βNever laugh at live dragons.β
βLook, up at the sky. There is a light, a beauty up there, that no shadow can touch.β
βI will not walk backward in life.β
βWar 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.β
βThe burned hand teaches best.β
βHome is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadows to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight. Then world behind and home ahead, Weβll wander back and home to bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade!β
βThe world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, For none now live who remember it.β
βWhat punishments of God are not gifts?β
βThe stars are far brighter Than gems without measure, The moon is far whiter Than silver in treasure; The fire is more shining On hearth in the gloaming Than gold won by mining, So why go a-roaming? O! Tra-la-la-lally Come back to the Valley.β
βGreat heart will not be denied.β
βIβm looking for someone to share in an adventure.β
βI do not believe this darkness will endure.β
βThe 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.β
βLet this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. Forth, Eorlingas!β
βStill round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.β
βSpeak politely to an enraged dragon.β
βNo half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.β
βThere is a place called βheavenβ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet.β
βAll that is gold does not glitter.β
βIn a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.β
βThere is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.β
βAnd then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.β
βOft hope is born when all is forlorn.β
βThough here at journeyβs end I lie In darkness buried deep, Beyond all towers strong and high, Beyond all mountains steep, Above all shadows rides the Sun And Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, Nor bid the Stars farewell.β
βItβs the job thatβs never started as takes longest to finish.β
βA man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.β
βI will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.β
βYou arenβt nearly through this adventure yet.β
βSo comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.β
βI feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.β
βFor you do not yet know the strengths of your hearts, and you cannot foresee what each may meet on the road.β
βThen something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.β
βStill round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.β
βHe found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.β
βCourage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand- β that and such hope as I bring.β
βI donβt know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.β
βWhat does your heart tell you?β
βAnd some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring? passed out of all knowledge.β
βFor we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.β
βIn a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.β
βHis grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.β
βThe Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation β This story begins and ends in joy.β
βIt needs but one foe to breed a war, and those who have not swords can still die upon them.β
βThe road goes ever on and on.β
βA story must be told or thereβll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.β
βShort cuts make long delays.β
βTell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?β
βI wisely started with a map.β
βIt 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.β
βI donβt want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I canβt escape is even worse.β
βFarewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!β
βAiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima!β
βBut 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.β
βMy dear Frodo!β exclaimed Gandalf. βHobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.β
βThe Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.β
βWhere there are so many, all speech becomes a debate without end. But two together may perhaps find wisdom.β
βIt is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.β
βAllβs well that ends better.β
βDeep roots are not reached by the frost.β
βIf you sit on the doorstep long enough, I daresay you will think of something.β
βAdvice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.β
βTogether we will take the road that leads into the West, And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.β
βThere are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.β
βValour needs first strength, then a weapon.β
βI have an unsatisfied desire to shoot well with a bow.β
βIf this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.β
βI threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin.β
βIt is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious.β
βThird time pays for all.β
βBut who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?β
βAnd she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark could outmatch in battle.β
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