The brave things in the old tales and songs...I used to think that they were things that the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for.... But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have just landed in them, usually.... I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those who just went on -- and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. ...I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into? -- J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) "The Two Towers"
"Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in the service of man. When man is in the service of society, you have a monster state, and that's what is threatening the world at this minute." --Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) author of "The Hero With a Thousand Faces"
"Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?" -- Gimli the dwarf (From the movie "The Return of the King")