J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

458 Sourced Quotes

Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else... may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds.

J. R. R. Tolkien
We have sworn, and not lightly. This oath we will keep. We are threatened with many evils, and treason not least; but one thing is not said: that we shall suffer from cowardice, from cravens or the fear of cravens. Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen, of meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been; Of yellow leaves and gossamer in autumns that there were, with morning mist and silver sun and wind upon my hair.

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

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Elves say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive.

J. R. R. Tolkien
On C. S. Lewis' death:
So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age—like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.

J. R. R. Tolkien
About C. S. Lewis:
The unpayable debt that I owe to him was not "influence" as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement. He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my "stuff" could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The L. of the R. to a conclusion.

J. R. R. Tolkien