Men need many words before deeds.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (1956)

Long have we tended our beasts and our fields, built our houses, wrought our tools, or ridden away to help in the war of minas tirith. And that we called the life of men, the way of the world. We cared little for what lay beyond the borders of our land. Songs we have that tell of these things, but we are forgetting them, teaching them only to children, as a careless custom. And now the songs have come down among us out of strage places, and walk visible under the sun.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (1956)

There are some things that it is better to begin than refuse, even though the end may be dark.

Aragorn, in: J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (1956)

Of course, it is likely enough, my friends, [...] that we are going to our doom: the last march of the ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. that thought has long been growing in our hearts; and that is why we are marching now.

Treebeard, in: J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, pt. II: The Two Towers (1956)

Not all who wander are lost.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings