J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.

No one, I fancy, would discredit a story that the Archbishop of Canterbury slipped on a banana skin ...

In describing a fairy story which they think adults might possibly read for their own entertainment,...

Not long ago-incredible though it may seem-I heard a clerk of Oxford declare that he 'welcomed' the ...

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Lightthrough whom is splintered from a single Whiteto many hues, and...

It was an irresistible development of modern illustration (so largely photographic) that borders sho...

I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faërie is a...

Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the...

The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that woul...

Far more often [than asking the question 'Is it true?'] they [children] have asked me: 'Was he good?...

The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts...

Literature works from mind to mind and is more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more po...

Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, ...

the association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history. Fairy-stories ...

I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my...

Supernatural is a dangerous and difficult word in any of its senses, looser or stricter. But to fair...

Although now long estranged,Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.Dis-graced he may be, yet is n...

Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We're in one, of course, but I mean: pu...

Wizards are always troubled about the future.

When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold, Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the drea...

The king was silent. "Ents!" he said at length. "Out of the shadows of legend I begin a little to un...

Sam: I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales. Frodo: [turns around] What? Sam: I wonder if...

My name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. ...

And so Gollum found them hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of t...

I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stor...

Fair speech may hide a foul heart.

There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.

If all the seven stones were laid out before me now, I should shut my eyes and put my hands in my po...

Hullo!” said Merry. “So that’s what is bothering you? Now, Pippin my lad, don’t forget Gildor’s sayi...

Then holding the star aloft and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadi...

War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love t...

Smeagol won't grub for roots and carrotses and - taters. What's taters,precious, eh, what's taters?"...

I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to

Hobbits always so polite, yes! O nice hobbits! Smeagol brings them up secret ways that nobody else c...

No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small cre...

Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end.

The day will bring hope for me," said Aragorn. "Is it not said that no foe has ever taken the Hornbu...

The treacherous are ever distrustful.

I fear I am beyond your comprehension. - Gandalf the White

Gandalf: Often does hatred hurt itself!

It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange...How shall ...

There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery.

I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory.

You could call her perilous because she was so strong in herself.

Goodbye, master, my dear! Forgive your Sam. He'll come back to this spot when the job's done - if he...

Until the coming of another day of fear, they walked in silence with bowed heads.

Don't the great tales never end?""No, they never end as tales," said Frodo. "But the people in them ...

But perhaps you could call her perilous because she's so strong in herself. You , you could dash you...

And he smote the Balrog upon the mountainside.

And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expecte...

It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger...

Being a cheerful hobbit, he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.

Frodo raised his head, and then stood up. Despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He ...

A fair vision had welcomed him in this land of disease.

Yes, I am white now,' said Gandalf. 'Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should...

He never had any real hope in the affair from the beginning;but being a cheerful hobbit he had not n...

Mercy!" cried Gandalf. "If the giving of knowledge is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shal...

There was a deep silence, only scraped on its surfaces by the faint quiver of empty seed-plumes, and...

If we was master, then we could help ourselves.

And you, Ring-bearer,’ she said, turning to Frodo. ‘I come to you last who are not last in my though...

Children are meant to grow up, and not to become Peter Pans. Not to lose innocence and wonder, but t...

I will not debate with you Dark Elf. By the swords of the Noldor alone are your sunless woods defend...

What would you here, unhappy mortal, and for what cause have you left your own land to enter this, w...

All his court were cast down in slumber, and all the fires faded and were quenched; but the Silmaril...

Therefore Morgoth came, climbing slowly from his subterranean throne, and the rumour of his feet was...

Indeed the mind of Ilúvatar concerning you is not known to the Valar, and he has not revealed all th...

It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than i...

Nightingales sang about her wherever she went.

In this Music [the singing of the angels in harmony] the World was begun; for Iluvatar made visible ...

But Ilúvatar knew that Men, being set amid the turmoils of the powers of the world, would stray ofte...

As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of...

The sons of Dior and Nimloth were Elured and Elurin; and a daughter also was born to them, and she w...

Where are Haldad my father, and Haldad my brother? If the king of Doriath fears a friendship between...

Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankles...

Last of all Hurin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it ...

All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.

Now fair and marvellous was that vessel made, and it was filled with a wavering flame, pure and brig...

He willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein; but t...

These folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they ...

There came a time near dawn on the eve of spring, and Luthien danced upon a green hill; and suddenly...

You renounce your friendship even in the hour of our need ' he said. 'Yet you were glad indeed to re...

And when [Bëor] lay dead, of no wound or grief, but stricken by age, the Eldar saw for the first tim...

Then Maeglin bowed low and took Turgon for lord and king, to do all his will; but thereafter he stoo...

But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed,...

Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that came down to us from the darkness of those days there are...

But of bliss and glad life there is little to be said, before it ends; as works fair and wonderful, ...

The love of Arda was set in your hearts by Ilúvatar, and he does not plant to no purpose.

Many are the strange chances of the world,' said Mithrandir, 'and help oft shall come from the hands...

Nienor ran on into the woods until she was spent, and then fell, and slept, and awoke; and it was a ...

Then sudden Felagund there swayingSang in answer a song of staying,Resisting, battling against power...

But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. The...

Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle...

Above all shadows rides the Sunand Stars for ever dwell:I will not say the Day is done,nor bid the S...

To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising ver...

How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are so...

The grey-rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and...

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star...

Well, you have now, Sam, dear Sam,’ said Frodo, and he lay back in Sam’s gentle arms, closing his ey...

What do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked. "A cage," [Éowyn] said. "To stay behind bars, until use an...

The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things...

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.