J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

458 Sourced Quotes

He was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgûl, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.

J. R. R. Tolkien
A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Yes, I am white now,' said Gandalf. 'Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Many folk like to know beforehand what is to be set on the table; but those who have laboured to prepare the feast like to keep their secret; for wonder makes the words of praise louder.

J. R. R. Tolkien
My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'

J. R. R. Tolkien
And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.

J. R. R. Tolkien
In Paradise they look no more awry;
and though they make anew, they make no lie.
Be sure they still will make, not being dead,
and poets shall have flames upon their head,
and harps whereon their faultless fingers fall:
there each shall choose for ever from the All.

J. R. R. Tolkien
There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is coming.

J. R. R. Tolkien
How could such a large door be kept secret from everybody outside, apart from the dragon?" [Bilbo] asked. He was only a little hobbit you must remember.

J. R. R. Tolkien
His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.

J. R. R. Tolkien
It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.

J. R. R. Tolkien
For so sworn good or evil an oath may not be broken and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world's end.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it will be a marvel!

J. R. R. Tolkien
Supernatural is a dangerous and difficult word in any of its senses, looser or stricter. But to fairies it can hardly be applied, unless super is taken merely as a superlative prefix. For it is man who is, in contrast to fairies, supernatural; whereas they are natural, far more natural than he. Such is their doom.

J. R. R. Tolkien
If you find that not many of the things you asked for have come, and not perhaps quite so many as sometimes, remember that this Christmas all over the world there are a terrible number of poor and starving people.

J. R. R. Tolkien
It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel. (Aragorn talking of Eowyn, in the Houses of Healing)

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
I would with the beleaguered fools be told,
that keep an inner fastness where their gold,
impure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
to mint in image blurred of distant king,
or in fantastic banners weave the sheen
heraldic emblems of a lord unseen.

J. R. R. Tolkien
It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.

J. R. R. Tolkien
No, my heart will not yet despair. Gandalf fell and has returned and is with us. We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts. (Ghan-buri-Ghan, of allies during war)

J. R. R. Tolkien
The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography, as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory, and what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.

J. R. R. Tolkien
His face was sad and stern because of the doom that was laid on him, and yet hope dwelt ever in the depths of his heart, from which mirth would arise at times like a spring from a rock.

J. R. R. Tolkien
This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Chip the glasses and crack the plates! / Blunt the knives and bend the forks! / That's what Bilbo Baggins hates.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.

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
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