words to inspire before you expire
“…every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.”
–from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.”
–from “The Preface” of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“‘Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.'”
–from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkein
“It seemed to Frodo then that he heard, quite plainly but far off, voices out of the past:
. . . .
I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.
Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.”
–from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkein
“Slowly, very slowly, he sat up, and as he did so he felt more alive and more aware of his own living body than ever before. Why had he never appreciated what a miracle he was, brain and nerve and bounding heart? It would all be gone…or at least, he would be gone from it. His breath came slow and deep, and his mouth and throat were completely dry, but so were his eyes.”
–from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
–Dumbledore, on the Mirror of Erised:
“‘It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts…However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.
‘The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.'”
–from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
“They looked back. Dark yawned the archway of the Gates under the mountain-shadow. Faint and far beneath the earth rolled the slow drum-beats: doom. A thin black smoke trailed out. Nothing else was to be seen; the dale all around was empty. Doom. Grief at last wholly overcame them, and they wept long: some standing and silent, some cast upon the ground. Doom, doom. The drum-beats faded.”
–from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkein
“‘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.'”
–from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkein
“‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you ca’n’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.'”
–from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
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