J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

458 Sourced Quotes

There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over... Faint to my ears came the gathered rumor of all lands: the springing and the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone.

J. R. R. Tolkien
The way is shut. Then they halted and looked at him and saw that he lived still; but he did not look at them. The way is shut, his voice said again. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.

J. R. R. Tolkien
There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Bilbo saw that the moment had come when he must do something.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on on the story.

J. R. R. Tolkien
In such 'fantasy', as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.

J. R. R. Tolkien
My dear Frodo!' exclaimed Gandalf. 'Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.

J. R. R. Tolkien
"It's a gift!" he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result; but he was using the word quite literally.

J. R. R. Tolkien
It was like discovering a complete wine-filled cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me….

J. R. R. Tolkien
It seemed like all the way to tomorrow and over it to the days beyond.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I don't know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back. It isn't right to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want - I don't rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Well, the first War of the Machines seems to be drawing to its final inconclusive chapter — leaving, alas, everyone the poorer, many bereaved or maimed and millions dead, and only one thing triumphant: the Machines. As the servants of the Machine are becoming a privileged class, the Machines are going to be enormously more powerful. What's their next move?

J. R. R. Tolkien
It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Rover did not know in the least where the moon's path led to, and at present he was much too frightened and excited to ask, and anyway he was beginning to get used to extraordinary things happening to him.

J. R. R. Tolkien
But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.

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
To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though 'breathed through silver'.

J. R. R. Tolkien
But the enemy has the move, and he is about to open his full game. And pawns are as likely to see as much of it as any. Sharpen your blade!

J. R. R. Tolkien
No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.

J. R. R. Tolkien
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory.

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
I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!

J. R. R. Tolkien
You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

J. R. R. Tolkien