Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart, and try to have patience, if you can.
The burned hand teaches best.
Still 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.
There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.
Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
The wise speak only of what they know.
It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.
All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.
For victory is victory, however small, nor is its worth only from what follows from it.
Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
For nothing is evil in the beginning.
There is no ship now that can bear me hence.
Short cuts make long delays.
When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold, Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold; When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!
There cannot be any ‘story’ without a fall – all stories are ultimately about the fall – at least not for human minds as we know them and have them.
I have an unsatisfied desire to shoot well with a bow.
We don’t want any adventures here! You might try over the Hill or Across the Water.
If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: ‘What is the purpose of life?’ is unaskable and unanswerable.
Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.