J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

458 Sourced Quotes

We are being at once wisely aware of our own frivolity if we avoid hitting and whacking and prefer 'striking' and 'smiting'; talk and chat and prefer 'speech' and 'discourse'; well-bred, brilliant, or polite noblemen (visions of snobbery columns in the Press, and fat men on the Riviera) and prefer the 'worthy, brave and courteous men' of long ago.

J. R. R. Tolkien
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
Farewell," they cried, "Wherever you fare till your eyries receive you at the journey's end!" That is the polite thing to say among eagles. "May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks," answered Gandalf, who knew the correct reply.

J. R. R. Tolkien
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I hope I never smell the smell of apples again!" said Fili. "My tub was full of ut. To smell apples everlastingly when you can scarcely move and are cold and sick with hunger is maddening. I could eat anything in the wide world now for hours on end - but not an apple!

J. R. R. Tolkien
My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) … the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

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
I do so dearly believe that no half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

J. R. R. Tolkien
What course am I to take?" "Towards danger; but not too rashly, nor too straight.

J. R. R. Tolkien
I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at.

J. R. R. Tolkien
There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.

J. R. R. Tolkien
And amid all the splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling fires, Ilúvatar chose a place for their habitation in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the innumerable stars.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart; and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West, and cometh from the Sea.

J. R. R. Tolkien
It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.

J. R. R. Tolkien
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.

J. R. R. Tolkien
They have seen Death and ultimate defeat,
and yet they would not in despair retreat,
but oft to victory have tuned the lyre
and kindled hearts with legendary fire,
illuminating Now and dark Hath-been
with light of suns as yet by no man seen.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Yet trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen
and never were so named, till those had been
who speech's involuted breath unfurled,
faint echo and dim picture of the world,
but neither record nor a photograph,
being divination, judgement, and a laugh
response of those that felt astir within
by deep monition movements that were kin
to life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars:
free captives undermining shadowy bars,
digging the foreknown from experience
and panning the vein of spirit out of sense.

J. R. R. Tolkien
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.

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
Farewell we call to hearth and hall! Though wind may blow and rain may fall. We must away ere the break of day. Far over wood and mountain tall.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Every morning I wake up and think good, another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.

J. R. R. Tolkien
The Dark Lord has Nine. But we have One, mightier than they: the White Rider. He has passed through the fire and the abyss, and they shall fear him. We will go where he leads.

J. R. R. Tolkien
In one thing you have not changed, dear friend," said Aragorn: "you still speak in riddles." "What? In riddles?" said Gandalf. "No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.

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

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Eldar Race. He knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even under the shadow of the black wings.

J. R. R. Tolkien