There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.
The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say.
His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.
Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn
The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. The quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
She no longer seemed perilous or terrible, nor filled with hidden power. Already she seemed to him, as by men of the later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of that which as already been left far behind by the flowing streams of time
'White!' he sneered. 'It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.'
'In which case it is no longer white,' said I. 'and he that breaks a thing to find out what it was has left the path of wisdom.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all the lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
Frodo felt that he was in a timeless land that did not fade or change or fall into forgetfulness.
...he laid his hand upon the tree beside the ladder; never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree's skin and of the life within int. He felt a delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the delight of the living tree itself.
Here is the heart of elvendom on earth and here my heart dwells ever unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread you and I.
...it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
We must walk open-eyed into that trap, with courage, but small hope for ourselves. For, my lords, it may well prove that we ourselves shall perish utterly in a black battle far from the living lands; so that even if Barad-dur be thrown down, we shall not live to see a new age. But this, I deem, is our duty. And better so than to perish nonetheless--as we surely shall, if we sit here--and know as we die that no new age shall be.