And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.

Short cuts make long delays.

My political opinions lean more and more to anarchy. The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men. There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power stations. I hope that, encouraged now as patriotism, may remain a habit.

There was a fire in the wide hearth before them, and it was burning with a sweet smell, as if it were built of apple-wood.

You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power.

Much evil must befall a country before it wholly forgets the Elves, if once they dwelt there.

And the Ring is so heavy, Sam. I begin to see it in my mind all the time, like a great wheel of fire.