"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."

wisebyexperience:

(( Okay, so I was just reading the different endings Tolkien wrote for lotr and I did not think it was possible for the ending to be any sadder, but oh, HOW WRONG I WAS. 

So basically it’s seventeen years after Frodo leaves Middle Earth, and Sam is talking to Rosie:

‘March 25th’, he said. 'This time seventeen years ago,
Rose wife, I did not think I should ever see thee again. But I kept on hoping.’

'And I never hoped at all, Sam,’ she said, 'until that very day;
and then suddenly I did. In the middle of the morning I began singing, and father said “Quiet lass, or the Ruffians will come,” and I said “Let them come. Their time will soon be over. My Sam’s coming back.” And he came.’ 

'And you came back,’ said Rose.

'I did,’ said Sam; 'to the most belovedest place in all the
world. I was torn in two then, lass, but now I am all whole. And all that I have, and all that I have had I still have.’

They went in and shut the door. But even as he did so Sam
heard suddenly the sigh and murmur of the sea on the shores of Middle-earth.   

SOMEONE HOLD ME ))