The Soil of Home is Deep...

"It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose; you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of [home] is deep."
- J.R.R. Tolkein, through Sam in The Return of the King, Houghton Mifflin (March 1988), p. 144.

J.R.R. Tolkien on Marriage and Love...

"Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to."
- J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Michael Tolkien (March 1941)

'He Hated and Loved It ... He Had No Will Left..."

'All the "great secrets" under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the dark, and he hated light more: he hated everything, and the Ring most of all.'

'What do you mean?' said Frodo. 'Surley the Ring was his precious and the only thing he cared for? But if he hated it, why didn't he get rid of it, or go away and leave it?'

'You ought to begin to understand Frodo, after all you have heard,' said Gandalf. 'He hated it and loved it, as he hated and loved himself. He could not get rid of it. He had no will left in the matter.'
- J.R.R. Tolkien through the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo in The Fellowship of the Rings, p.64