No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it even with my waking eyes, and all else fades.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a profound sense of loss and confronting one’s own existence and reality.
In this quote, Tolkien touches on the themes of existential despair and the stripping away of sensory experiences, leading to a raw confrontation with the essence of being. The speaker feels as if all the beautiful and comforting elements of the world have vanished, leaving them exposed to the harsh truths of life, likened to being 'naked in the dark' and facing an overwhelming reality represented by 'the wheel of fire.' It highlights the struggle of perceiving life without the distractions of pleasure and beauty, ultimately leading to a deeper realization of existence itself.
In practice
Sharing this quote during a discussion on the meaning of life.
All the same, I should like it all plain and clear," said he obstinately, putting on his business manner (usually reserved for people who tried to borrow money off him), and doing his best to appear wise and prudent and professional and live up to Gandalf's recommendation. "Also I should like to know about risks, out-of-pocket expenses, time required and remuneration, and so forth"--by which he meant: "What am I going to get out of it ? and am I going to come back alive?
Go not to the Elves for counsel,_x000D_ for they will say both no and yes._x000D_ Elves seldom give unguarded advice,_x000D_ for advice is a dangerous gift,_x000D_ even from the wise to the wise,_x000D_ and all courses may run ill.
What did I tell you, Mr. Pippin?' said Sam, sheathing his sword. 'Wolves won't get him. That was an eye-opener, and no mistake! Nearly singed the hair off my head!
Under the Mountain dark and tall The King has come unto his hall! His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread, And ever so his foes shall fall. The sword is sharp, the spear is long, The arrow swift, the Gate is strong; The heart is bold that looks on gold; The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong. The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fells like ringing bells In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells. -from The Hobbit (Dwarves Battle Song)
The chief purpose of life, for any of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.
Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.
The only way to reconcile science and religion is to set up something which is not science and something that is not religion.
History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy.
Male domination is so rooted in our collective unconscious that we no longer even see it.
Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.
It is a dangerous and fateful presumption, besides the absurd temerity that it implies, to disdain what we do not comprehend. For after you have established, according to your fine undertstanding, the limits of truth and falsehood, and it turns out that you must necessarily believe things even stranger than those you deny, you are obliged from then on to abandon these limits.
We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without.
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