#rings

There is a time when even justice brings harm. ↗

— Sophocles

#even #harm #justice #time

I first read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit when I was eighteen. It felt as though the author had taken every element I'd ever want in a story and woven them into one huge, seamless narrative; but more important, for me, Tolkien had created a place, a vast, beautiful, awesome landscape, which remained a resource long after the protagonists had finished their battles and gone their separate ways. In illustrating The Lord of the Rings I allowed the landscapes to predominate. In some of the scenes the characters are so small they are barely discernible. This suited my own inclinations and my wish to avoid, as much as possible, interfering with the pictures being built up in the reader's mind, which tends to be more closely focussed on characters and their inter-relationships. I felt my task lay in shadowing the heroes on their epic quest, often at a distance, closing in on them at times of heightened emotion but avoiding trying to re-create the dramatic highpoints of the text. With The Hobbit, however, it didn't seem appropriate to keep such a distance, particularly from the hero himself. I don't think I've ever seen a drawing of a Hobbit which quite convinced me, and I don't know whether I've gotten any closer myself with my depictions of Bilbo. I'm fairly happy with the picture of him standing outside Bag End, before Gandalf arrives and turns his world upside-down, but I've come to the conclusion that one of the reasons Hobbits are so quiet and elusive is to avoid the prying eyes of illustrators. ↗

— Alan Lee

#lord-of-the-rings #the-hobbit #beauty

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves Orcs. ↗

— Raj Patel

#humor #lord-of-the-rings #change

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more. ↗

— Henri Frederic Amiel

#flour #grain #ground #into #kills

Poor God, how often He is blamed for all the suffering in the world. It’s like praising Satan for allowing all the good that happens. ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#blame-game #god #good #good-and-evil #goodness

Seneca brings vividly before us a picture of the various scholars assembled in a school of the philosophers. ↗

— Frederic William Farrar

#before #brings #philosophers #picture #scholars

We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable. ↗

— John Updike

#daily #extent #great #great extent #others

The history of mankind is confined within a limited period, and from every quarter brings an intimation that human affairs have had a beginning. ↗

— Adam Ferguson

#beginning #brings #confined #every #had

The Senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security. ↗

— Dick Cheney

#attitude #bear #brings #doubt #given

One of the pleasantest things about book writing is that sometimes it brings one in touch with old friends. ↗

— Rachel Field

#book #book writing #brings #friends #old