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They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.
Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.’
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!’ ‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.’
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 feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.
‘Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.’
‘Do you like them still, now you have had a closer view?’ ‘They seem a bit above my likes and dislikes, so to speak,’ answered Sam slowly. ‘It don’t seem to matter what I think about them.
he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
Thus, at last, they came beyond hope under the sky and felt the wind on their faces.
‘In the morning you must depart, for now we have chosen, and the tides of fate are flowing.’
Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.
At last he looked up, and Pippin could see a sad look in his eyes, sad but not unhappy. There was a light in them, as if the green flame had sunk deeper into the dark wells of his thought. ‘Of course, it is likely enough, my friends,’ he said slowly, ‘likely enough that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later.
I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see.
Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind.
This is why purely evil characters are much more dull than good ones. They are predictable. Good is never perfect, but the cackling evil villain can't imagine how to be good. They lack the necessary perspective.
What is your counsel?’ ‘You have yourself already taken it,’ answered Gandalf. ‘To put your trust in Éomer, rather than in a man of crooked mind. To cast aside regret and fear. To do the deed at hand.
It would be good if more of us did "the deed at hand." If everyone solved the problem under our nose, there would be a lot fewer problems.
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
the rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not know?’
‘Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
I’ll never forget their claws and eyes.’ ‘You won’t, if you talk about them,
No blame to Tolkien, but this is mistaken therapeutic advice. Not talking immediately after a trauma makes it more likely to be encoded as something that comes back as an eidetic flashback and is tough(er) to grapple with. Talking it through attaches little linguistic handles to the event, and therefore the memory. This makes it easier to grab hold and integrate it properly in your psyche, where it can have importance but not overwhelm.