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

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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
Things are drawing towards the end now, unless I am mistaken. There is an unpleasant time just in front of you; but keep your heart up!

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
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
You will notice already that Mr. Baggins was not quite so prosy as he liked to believe, also that he was very fond of flowers.

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
I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?

J. R. R. Tolkien
Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Fifteen birds in five firtrees, their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze! But, funny little birds, they had no wings! O what shall we do with the funny little things? Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot; fry them, boil them and eat them hot?

J. R. R. Tolkien
Victory after all, I suppose! Well, it seems a very gloomy business.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Gandalf looked at him. 'My dear Bilbo!' he said. 'Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were.'

J. R. R. Tolkien
This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.

J. R. R. Tolkien
There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Don't dip your beard in the foam, Father!" They cried to Thorin. "It is long enough without watering it!

J. R. R. Tolkien
If you mean you think it is my job to go into the secret passage first, O Thorin Thrain's son Oakenshield, may your beard grow ever longer, he said crossly, say so at once and have done!

J. R. R. Tolkien
The dragon is withered, His bones are now crumbled; His armour is shivered, His splendour is humbled! Though sword shall be rusted, And throne and crown perish With strength that men trusted And wealth that they cherish, Here grass is still growing, And leaves are yet swinging, The white water flowing, And elves are yet singing Come! Tra-la-la-lally! Come back to the valley!

J. R. R. Tolkien
Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!" he said to himself, and it became a favourite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb. "You aren't nearly through this adventure yet," he added, and that was pretty true as well.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.

J. R. R. Tolkien
This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Gandalf thought of most things; and though he could not do everything, he could do a great deal for friends in a tight corner.

J. R. R. Tolkien
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Some sang too that Thror and Thrain would come back one day and gold would flow in rivers, through the mountain-gates, and all that land would be filled with new song and new laughter. But this pleasant legend did not much affect their daily business.

J. R. R. Tolkien
May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.

J. R. R. Tolkien