Authors:

J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes - Page 9

All Quotes Adventure Age Art Beer Bones Children Country Courage Darkness Death Penalty Desire Doom Doubt Earth Evil Faith Fate Fear Giving Glory Gold Goodbye Grief Hate Hatred Healing Heart Heaven Hills Home Hope House Hurt Imagination Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Journey Joy Language Laughter Life Loss Lying Magic Manifestation Memories Moon Morning Mountain Myth Nature Pain Past Philosophy Pleasure Praise Purpose Rage Rain Reality Resurrection Rings Romance Running Saying Goodbye Silence Sleep Son Sorrow Spring Suffering Summer Today Travel Twilight Victory Vision Waiting Wall War Warrior Water Wine Winter Wisdom Writing
Never laugh at live dragons.

Never laugh at live dragons.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Life, Wisdom, Dragons
The Hobbit ch. 12 (1937)

In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Memories, Circles, Afterlife
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.710, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Such is of 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
Moving, Eye, Small Hands
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.246, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.' I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!

J. R. R. Tolkien
Adventure, Thinking, Use
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Hobbit”, p.7, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The road goes ever on and on

J. R. R. Tolkien
Books And Movies, Errands, Fellowship
The Fellowship of the Ring bk. 1, ch. 1 (1954)

It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Life, Art, Enemy
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.190, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them. Filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present : like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake. I don’t know, but I t felt as if something that grew in the ground—asleep, you might say, or just feeling itself as something between roof-tip and leaf-tip, between deep earth and sky had suddenly waked up, and was considering you with the same slow care that it had given to its own inside affairs for endless years.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Memories, Thinking, Lakes

The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Truth Is, Cynicism, Regions
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.336, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Marriage, Memories, Real
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.51, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Blessed, Catholic, Earth
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.53, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Wise, Fellowship, Death Penalty
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.53, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Adventure, Dark, Mist
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.80, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Criticism - however valid or intellectually engaging - tends to get in the way of a writer who has anything personal to say. A tightrope walker may require practice, but if he starts a theory of equilibrium he will lose grace (and probably fall off).

J. R. R. Tolkien
Fall, Practice, Grace
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.126, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

J. R. R. Tolkien
Victory
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Children of Húrin”, p.60, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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
Poor, Holes, Said
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Hobbit”, p.32, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Kings, Lying, Dark
The Fellowship of the Ring epigraph (1954)

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Life, Wise, Wisdom
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.60, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Faithful heart may have froward tongue.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Heart, Faithful, May
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.360, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

There was a deep silence, only scraped on its surfaces by the faint quiver of empty seed-plumes, and broken grass-blades trembling in small air-movements they could not feel. 'Not a bird!' said Sam mournfully. 'No, no birds,' said Gollum. 'Nice birds!' He licked his teeth. 'No birds here. There are snakeses, wormses, things in the pools. Lots of things, lots of nasty things. No birds,' he ended sadly. Sam looked at him with distaste.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Nice, Air, Broken
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.428, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort

J. R. R. Tolkien
Mean, Comfort, Holes
The Hobbit ch. 1 (1937)

Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Farewell, Saying Goodbye, Years
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.691, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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
Heart, Light, Understanding
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Hobbit”, p.39, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Mother, Giving, Way

Without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless

J. R. R. Tolkien
Mean, Simple, Ordinary
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.160, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

All's well that ends better.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Ends, Wells

You May Also Like: