Bilbo's Journey Quotes

“The dragon sickness is a euphemism for the bourgeois materialism which is rife in our consumerist culture. Smaug’s fury at the loss of a single insignificant and practically useless trinket serves as a metaphor for modern man and his mania for possessing trash that he doesn’t need.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“In the absence of virtue and wisdom, intelligence becomes a servant of evil.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in The Hobbit

“And here is the paradox at the heart of the Christian life: The one who embraces suffering, who dies to himself in order to die for others, is actually happier than the one who shuns suffering and who puts himself above all else.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in The Hobbit

“growing up is about growing in wisdom and virtue and learning to curtail our selfishness so that we can give ourselves more selflessly to others.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“The war against the dragon is not, therefore, a war against a physical monster, like a dinosaur, but a battle against the wickedness we encounter in our everyday lives. We all face our daily dragons and we must all defend ourselves from them and hopefully slay them. The sobering reality is that we must either fight the dragons that we encounter in life or become dragons ourselves. There is no “comfortable” alternative.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in The Hobbit

“every life should be a quest to achieve the goal of heaven through a growth in virtue, thereby attaining the power, through grace, to overcome the monsters and demons which seek to prevent the achievement of this paramount goal. It is in this way and with this understanding of the meaning and purpose of life that we are meant to read The Hobbit and it is in this way, and this way alone, that we find its deepest and most applicable meaning.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in The Hobbit

“Those who are open and alive, guided by the light of humility, will be blessed with the spiritual poverty with which they will inherit the kingdom of heaven; those who are blinded by the darkness of pride will be cursed with the material wealth with which they will purchase their ticket to hell. Such an understanding of reality, common to the elves of Rivendell and the Franciscans of Assisi, animates the whole moral atmosphere and literary dynamic of The Hobbit.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“In this embrace of suffering, even unto death, Bilbo is encapsulating the whole idea of life being a cross that we are called to carry willingly and indeed enthusiastically. Life is not about the pursuit of creature comforts and taking the paths of least resistance. It is about Love, which can be defined as willingly laying down our lives for others.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“At the Battle of Five Armies, as it became known, the men of the Lake fight with long swords whereas the goblins wield scimitars. This places the battle symbolically as a clash between Christendom and the Infidel, the forces of goodness wielding the broad swords of the Christian crusaders whilst the forces of darkness fight with the curved swords of Islam. The same symbolism is employed in The Lord of the Rings, in which orcs are armed with scimitars whereas the men of Gondor fight with long swords.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“Our theological antennae attuned to the clue being offered, we begin to see that the whole of The Hobbit is a figurative account of Bilbo’s baptism into the fullness of life. He had been “dead” when trying to preserve the life of creature comforts at Bag End, his home in the Shire, and needed to “die to himself,” laying down his life self-sacrificially for others, which is the hallmark and meaning of love, in order to find the fullness of life. He had to lose his life in order to gain it. He had to bury his old life of self-centerdness in order to be resurrected into the new life of adventure. He had to risk death in order to find life. In short and in sum, he needed a baptism of death-defying and life-giving grace.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in The Hobbit

“Gandalf’s very last words are unequivocal and could not be starker or plainer: “Be good, take care of yourselves—and DON’T LEAVE THE PATH!” Here we see Gandalf as the archetypal father-figure advising his children as they embark on a journey on which he cannot be present to watch over them that they should be good, be careful, and don’t do anything stupid! The advice is, however, charged with Christian moral guidance, which the everyday language might obscure if we are not paying due attention. Being good, i.e. virtuous, is the prerequisite for success, whereas taking care implies the need to practice the cardinal virtues of prudence and temperance. Most importantly, the emphatic exhortation that they should not, under any circumstances, leave the path reminds the Christian of the words of Christ: Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. (Matthew 7:13)”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“Every evil design that is meant by the evil characters will ultimately serve the greater good that is meant by God. Bilbo is meant to find the Ring by the Ring’s Master (Sauron) but at the same time he is meant to find it by the One God who is the ultimate Master of the Master. It is on this deepest level of what is meant that we discover the deepest meaning in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"

“After we have made the comparison between the malicious and destructive “cleverness” of the goblins and the gentle and genteel simplicity of the hobbits, we will perceive that the conflict in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings between those who serve the Shadow and those who walk in the Light, between trolls, goblins, and dragons on the one side, and hobbits, dwarves, and elves on the other, is a battle between two civilizations, the culture of death and the culture of life, which is closer to home than we might at first realize.”
― Joseph Pearce, Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in "The Hobbit"