You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil.

"That's done it!" said Sam. "Now I've rung the front-door bell!"

It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.

And she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark could outmatch in battle.

But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.

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. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

Praise from the praise-worthy is beyond all rewards.