"I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again."

carrying the world around his neck

"I see no hope of it now. But I've got to do the best I can."

• ✹: How have your views changed since coming to Hive City? For example, do you believe people to be easily disposable or expendable?

^{“I don’t like to think of anyone as dispensable. Seems a despicable business.  If I begin to view others in such a light then I am no longer who I was.”}

^{Thoughts of Gandalf falling, falling forever into Moria’s mines echoed sharply in his head, as surely as any of his wounds. The one who should have always been the most dispensable was the Ringbearer, not Gandalf or Boromir. After all he was the one who had chosen the perils — but they had made their choices, and Frodo could only regret and fathom.} 

^{“But perhaps if I can think of anything worthy of note, it is that evil lurks in every world — just as there is goodness in them as well. As long as there is goodness fighting for the common goal, like my Sam says, my Quest is worth fighting for. Even if there was no good, we must fight for it anyway.”}

^{“The only real thing that I suppose could count as the changing of views is all the strange metal contraptions that are capable of making bread fly — and other such things. Silly of you, Baggins, to think you have seen everything!”}