These are some of my favorite lines from PART TWO of the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien.
[Eomer:] “The world is all grown strange…. How shall a man judge what to do in such times?”
“As he ever has judged,” said Aragorn. “Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.”
[Aragorn:] “There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.
[Gandalf:] “He is perilous too; yet he is wise and kindly nonetheless. But now his long slow wrath is brimming over, and all the forest is filled with it…. A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong.”
[Theoden:] “And that we called the life of Men, the way of the world. We cared little for what lay beyond the borders of our land. Songs we have that tell of these things, but we are forgetting them, teaching them only to children, as a careless custom. And now the songs have come down among us out of strange places, and walk visible under the Sun.”
[Aragorn:] “One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters.”
[Theoden:] “When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanc. So much for the House of Eorl. A lesser son of great sires am I, but I do not need to lick your fingers.”
[Gandalf:] “Nay, the guest who has escaped from the roof, will think twice before he comes back in by the door.”
[Gandalf:] “Often does hatred hurt itself!”
“When have I been hasty or unwary, who have waited and prepared for so many long years?” said Aragorn.
“Never yet. Do not then stumble at the end of the road,” answered Gandalf.
[Gandalf:] “Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.”
[Gandalf:] “But if I had spoken sooner, it would not have lessened your desire, or made it easier to resist. On the contrary! No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.”
“For myself,” said Faramir, “I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
