Arid

“What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. The way she put it was:
‘When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you’re happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?”
― George Orwell, 1984

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend”
― J R R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (3 Vol) and the Hobbit

“I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.”
― WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

“I cannot,” said Merry. “I have never seen them. I have never been out of my land before. And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don’t think I should have had the heart to leave it.”

“Not even to see fair Lothlórien?” said Haldir. “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
― J R R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (3 Vol) and the Hobbit