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

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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
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
Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!

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
What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset. "Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nassty little pocketsess?

J. R. R. Tolkien
Why O why did I ever leave my hobbit-hole?" said poor Mr. Baggins, bumping up and down on Bombur's back.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Please don't cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean.

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

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
The quiet was so deep that their feet seemed to thump along while all the trees leaned over them and listened,

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
And what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation?

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
Clap! Snap! the black crack! Grip, grab! Pinch, nab! And down down to Goblin-town You go, my lad! Clash, crash! Crush, smash! Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs! Pound, pound, far underground! Ho, ho! my lad! Swish, smack! Whip crack! Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat! Work, work! Nor dare to shirk, While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh, Round and round far underground Below, my lad!

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.

J. R. R. Tolkien
A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.

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
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
Farewell! O Gandalf! May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!

J. R. R. Tolkien
After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.

J. R. R. Tolkien
You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon.

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
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, To dungeons deep and caverns old, We must away, ere break of day, To seek our pale enchanted gold. The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fell like ringing bells, In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells. The pines were roaring on the heights, The wind was moaning in the night, The fire was red, it flaming spread, The trees like torches blazed with light.

J. R. R. Tolkien