I don't want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse.

And when [Bëor] lay dead, of no wound or grief, but stricken by age, the Eldar saw for the first time the swift waning of the life of Men, and the death of weariness which they knew not in themselves; and they grieved greatly for the loss of their friends. But Bëor at the last had relinquished his life willingly and passed in peace; and the Eldar wondered much at the strange fate of Men, for in all their lore there was no account of it, and its end was hidden from them.

It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons.

Touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire, but it's damn good for you.

These folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart we shall afflict them in all ways that we can." -- The Silmarllion, JRR Tolkien

Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it will be a marvel!

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.