J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit (1937)

87 Sourced Quotes

View all J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes
A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.

J. R. R. Tolkien
There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!

J. R. R. Tolkien
You ought not to be rude to an eagle, when you are only the size of a hobbit, and are up in hid eyrie at night!

J. R. R. Tolkien
Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?

J. R. R. Tolkien
Clap! Snap! the black crack! Grip, grab! Pinch, nab! And down down to Goblin-town You go, my lad! Clash, crash! Crush, smash! Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs! Pound, pound, far underground! Ho, ho! my lad! Swish, smack! Whip crack! Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat! Work, work! Nor dare to shirk, While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh, Round and round far underground Below, my lad!

J. R. R. Tolkien
Outside the ring of dancing warriors with spears and axes stood wolves at a respectful distance, watching and waiting.

J. R. R. Tolkien
If you sit on the doorstep long enough, I daresay you will think of something

J. R. R. Tolkien
Curse it! Curse it! Curse it! Curse the Baggins! It's gone! What has it got in its pocketses? Oh we guess, we guess, my precious. He's found it, yes he must have. My birthday-present.

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves! he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say 'out of the frying-pan into the fire' in the same sort of uncomfortable situations.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
Please don't cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean.

J. R. R. Tolkien
His rage passes description - the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted.

J. R. R. Tolkien
A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Farewell! O Gandalf! May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!

J. R. R. Tolkien
What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset. "Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nassty little pocketsess?

J. R. R. Tolkien
Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!

J. R. R. Tolkien
If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!

J. R. R. Tolkien
Burn, burn tree and fern! Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch To light the night for our delight, Ya hey! Bake and toast 'em, fry and roast 'em! till beards blaze, and eyes glaze; till hair smells and skins crack, fat melts, and bones black in cinders lie beneath the sky! So dwarves shall die, and light the night for our delight, Ya hey! Ya-harri-hey! Ya hoy!

J. R. R. Tolkien
We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.

J. R. R. Tolkien
And what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation?

J. R. R. Tolkien
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.

J. R. R. Tolkien
The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him.

J. R. R. Tolkien