The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

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.

He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary.

The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.’

‘Courage is found in unlikely places,’

‘Short cuts make long delays,’

‘Short cuts make delays, but inns make longer ones.

‘But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,’ said Frodo. Sam looked at him unhappily. ‘It all depends on what you want,’ put in Merry. ‘You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word.

And here in Rivendell there live still some of his chief foes: the Elven-wise, lords of the Eldar from beyond the furthest seas. They do not fear the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power.’

This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.’

‘If this is shelter, then one wall and no roof make a house.’

‘The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears.’

‘But where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls.’

There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.’

‘The 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.

‘It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish,

‘But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.’

Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zâram.