J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes

I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to

The burned hand teaches best.

You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power.

I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.

Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you've done since you left home.

Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.

I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon.

So fair, so cold; like a morning of pale spring still clinging to winter's chill.

Things will go as they will, and there is no need to hurry to meet them.

The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.

Each of us embodies, in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time & place, universal truth and everlasting life.

We meet again, at the turn of the tide. A great storm is coming, but the tide has turned.

Not all that have fallen are vanquished.

It [discovering Finnish] was like discovering a wine-cellar filled with bottles of amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me.

For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.

Short cuts make long delays.

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

Books ought to have good endings.How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?

Then Elrond and Galadriel rode on; for the Third Age was over and the Days of the Rings were passed and an end was come of the story and song of those times.

Their 'magic' is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations.

We are plain quiet folk, and I have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, and uncomfortable things.

If people were in the habit of refering to 'King George's council, Winston and his gang,' it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy.

That's what I meant,' said Pippin. 'We hobbits ought to stick together, and we will. I shall go, unless they chain me up. There must be someone with intelligence in the party.

For victory is victory, however small, nor is its worth only from what follows from it.

It is mine to give to whom I will, like my heart.

I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure.

He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.

My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.

In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.

But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.

It is mercy, not justice or courage or even heroism, that alone can defeat evil.

Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars, not if you care for such things.

For nothing is evil in the beginning.

There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.

Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo, a star shines on the hour of our meeting.

I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.

You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon.

If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else. Not all those who wander are lost.

The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.

I will not walk backward in life.

They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25, and it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film.

A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.

History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.

When he heard there was nothing to eat, he sat down and wept… “Why did I ever wake up!” he cried.

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

We set out to save the Shire, Sam and it has been saved - but not for me.

You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil.

Often does hatred hurt itself.