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“But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in!” - Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” Faramir, Lord of the Rings

"Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek." Aslan, the Chronicles of Narnia

“What matters isn’t if people are good or bad. What matters is, if they’re trying to be better today than they were yesterday. You asked me where my hope comes from? That’s my answer.” – Michael, The Good Place 4×06

“The point is, people improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them when they don’t?” – Michael, The Good Place 4×08

“If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made.” – Michael, The Good Place 4×09

“The wave returns to the ocean. What the ocean does with the water after that is anyone’s guess. But as a very wise not-robot once told me, true joy is in the mystery.” – Eleanor Shellstrop, The Good Place 4×13



Do you think I'm trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years.
~C. S. Lewis, in defense of fantasy as a genre

ESPN's John Buccigross's four primary values of hockey:

1. Heart
Hockey is a blood sport and the heart is the essential blood organ. A life can only be a life with something to be enthusiastic about.

2. Courage
This is the value that is needed to turn heart into a commodity. Everyone who loves skating has heart, but everyone who skates isn't a hockey player. Courage carries the heart and the dreams around the rink.

3. Mental toughness
No sport combines the aerobic and anaerobic strength of ice hockey. Every stride, every shift, every day has purpose. Hockey is not meaningless, for it is life, and every bit of life should be purposeful. A life is only a life if you have the mental toughness to make every breath purposeful.

4. Artistic expression
To be a great artist you must be a great thinker. You must expand the mind and train the mind to see things, to understand how things work, to think life. Thinking life is observational learning, experimentation and recall -- watching how things work, trying new things and applying them into action.

The Western Canadian Value system according to John Buccigross:

"You work, you save, you sacrifice, you play hurt, you don't call in sick, you laugh, you cry, you care, you give, you drink beer and you never give in. Right to your last breath."