The Anglicist

I wish it need not have happened in my time,“ said Frodo. "So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Be all this as it may, men should not have to depend upon physical strength for distinction, otherwise animals would have the advantage over them, as would the physically strongest among us

There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up.

There came a time when you realized that moving on was pointless. That you took yourself with you wherever you went.

When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

I was wise enough never to grow up, while fooling people into believing I had.

“Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, And then go home to bed. The little ones leaped, and shouted, and laughed, And all the hills echoed.”

I've read, Monsieur Boustouler, that if an avalanche buries you and you're lying there underneath all that snow, you can't tell which way is up or down. You want to dig yourself out but pick the wrong way, and you dig yourself to your own demise. That was how I felt, disoriented, suspended in confusion, stripped of my compass.

But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you. Like a puzzle. Vous comprenez? Like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it, trying to understand.