Saruman," I said, standing away from him, "only one hand at a time can weild the One, and you know that well, so do not trouble to say we!
J. R. R. TolkienA nice pickle they were all in now: all neatly tied up in sacks, with three angry trolls (and two with burns and bashes to remember) sitting by them, arguing whether they should roast them slowly, or mince them fine and boil them, or just sit on them one by one and squash them into jelly.
J. R. R. TolkienWithout the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless
J. R. R. TolkienOut of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament....There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, that every man's heart desires
J. R. R. TolkienFaerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary, and dungeons for the overbold.
J. R. R. TolkienFairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
J. R. R. Tolkien