The rose petal floats on water. The kingfisher flashes above the pond. Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death.

Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are.

If you don't know everything, you must go on with what you do know.

And his paths shall be many, and who shall know his name, for he shall be beorn among us many times, in many guises, as he has been and ever will be, time without end. His coming shall be like the sharp edge of the plow, turning our lives in furrows form out of the places where we lie in our silence. The breaker of binds; the forger of chains. The maker of futures; the unshaper of destiny. -from Commentaries on the Prophecies of the Dragon, by Jurith Dorine, Right Hand to the Queen of Almoren, 742 AB, the Third Age

Let most men have a finger and they will have the whole hand before you know. Let a clan cheif have a finger and he will have the entire arm.

Some men […] choose to seek greatness, while others are forced to it. It is always better to choose than to be forced. A man who is forced is never completely his own master. He must dance on the strings of those who forced him.

A flapping tongue has killed more men than sudden storms ever did.