To see the context, one must consider Elrond, Lord of Rivendell’s response: “But let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” Elrond’s point is that it’s OK to back out - but back out now, before taking on the responsibility. It’s spoken by the dwarf Gimli as the Fellowship is preparing to depart on its mission to return the Ring. This much-quoted line is also much-misunderstood.

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” – J.R.R.Better by far for us to trust each other to draw the right answers from the wrong books. Whether the “wrong” ideas that must not be expressed are ideas we love or ideas we hate, the same mischief is afoot. The time-traveling narrator is explaining the need to get rid of an inflammatory book in the antebellum South - inflammatory in this case meaning that it might spark a slave uprising. Just that, nothing more.” – Robert Heinlein, “Starship Troopers.”īutler, of course, means this the other way around: that a society’s taste for getting rid of “wrong” ideas is a mark of its repressive nature. “Happiness consists in getting enough sleep.One should always take this proposition into account when choosing a toolkit.

Any tool available to the “good guys” today might be wielded by the “bad guys” tomorrow. It matters not only whether one accomplishes an end but also how. This is one of the clearest expressions of the basis of the liberalism of process.

“An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.” – Isaac Asimov, “Foundation.”.

I cannot pretend that I always follow them, but I certainly always try. Or maybe because the sci-fi canon really does have a lot to teach about the well-lived life. Why? Maybe because this is the literature on which I grew up, or maybe because I have never lost the taste for it. But mine are different, because each is drawn from canonical science fiction. Like so many other scribes, I have been inspired by psychologist Jordan Peterson’s fascinating book to sketch my 12 rules of life.

Back Channel by Stephen L. Carter