O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain, and the brook that leaps from hill to plain; but better than rain or rippling streams is Water Hot that smokes and steams.

It is a long tale. Then you had better come inside and tell me some of it, if it won’t take all day.

Let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning.

Never again shall there be any such league of Elves and Men; for Men multiply and the Firstborn decrease, and the two kindreds are estranged. And ever since that day the race of Númenor has decayed, and the span of their years has lessened.

Yet a treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand.

I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?

The streams shall run in gladness, The lakes shall shine and burn, All sorrow fail and sadness At the Mountain-king’s return!

Hear, hear! said Bilbo, and accidentally said it aloud.

Unlooked-for?’ said Gandalf. 'I said that I would return and meet you here.’ 'But you did not name the hour, nor foretell the manner of your coming. Strange help you bring. You are mighty in wizardry, Gandalf the White!

He did not go much further, but sat down on the cold floor and gave himself up to complete miserableness, for a long while. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home - for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler.