Comforting quotes:

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. -Arthur Schopenhauer

"Trust thy self," Emerson says in Self Reliance (1841) "Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist."



"What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!"
"Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity."
The Lord of the Rings
Frodo and Gandalf on the betrayer Gollum, Chapter 'The Shadow of the Past'.

There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow.
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'Fog on the Barrow-Downs'.

"Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf and Frodo Baggins, Chapter 'The Shadow of the Past'.