Aragorn looked at the pale stars, and at the moon, now sloping behind the western hills that enclosed the valley. "This is a night as long as years. Yet dawn is ever the hope of men."

JRRT

'As for myself,' said Eomer, 'I have little knowledge of these deep matters; But I need it not. This I know, and it is enough, that as my friend Aragorn succoured me and my people, so I will aid him when he calls. I will go.'

JRRT

And with that shout the king came. His horse was white as snow, golden was his shield, and his spear was long. Light sprang in the sky. Night departed. So King Théoden rode from Helm's Gate and clove his path to the great Dike.

JRRT

A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars. But Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived -- for all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor;

JRRT

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence;

G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

Yay!

On December 5 and 20, fum, fum, fum!

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fum \Fum\, v. i.
     To play upon a fiddle. [Obs.]
     [1913 Webster]

           Follow me, and fum as you go.            --B. Jonson.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:

  fum
   n.

      [XEROX PARC] At PARC, often the third of the standard {metasyntactic
      variable}s (after {foo} and {bar}). Competes with {baz}, which is more
      common outside PARC.

Am I awake in a world of miracles?

Let others complain that the age is wicked; my complaint is that it is wretched; for it lacks passion.

Kierkegaard

Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed.

Innocent Smith, in Manalive by G.K. Chesterton

If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God

1 Corinthians 3:18-19

What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.

G.K. Chesterton

Men are that they might have joy

2 Nephi 2:25

The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.

G.K. Chesterton

All things denote there is a God

Alma 30:44

What a great reminder. I am to be awake to the glories around me. All is animated by the love and wisdom of God. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ enables my rejoicing in the reality that nothing is to be held back. All that the Father hath, He offers. What a gift! What an existence! What a future potential!

Inspired by Living in a World of Declawed Souls

The options today as they ever were, observed by Washington.

It appears to me there is an option still left to the United States of America; that is in their choice and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous or contemptible and miserable as a nation.

George Washington

How we interpret history determines how we interpret life.

The interpretation that one makes of history determines to a large degree the direction of one's life. No one can escape history, and no one can avoid interpretation.

William H. Amstrong, in "Study is Hard Work"