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

by J.R.R. Tolkien

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

I must cool myself and think; for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.’

‘The treacherous are ever distrustful,’

the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.’

Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.

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.