The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

‘I would have guided Frodo to Mordor and gone with him to the end;

‘There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.

for he that strikes the first blow, if he strikes it hard enough, may need to strike no more.

Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life.

And after all 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. Now they were come to the bitter end. But he had stuck to his master all the way; that was what he had chiefly come for, and he would still stick to him. His master would not go to Mordor alone. Sam would go with him

He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him. He’s like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him, whether or no.’

He wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace