Authors:
  1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. J
  4. J. R. R. Tolkien
  5. Memories

J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes about Memories

All J. R. R. Tolkien 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 quotes 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
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.

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

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

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

No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it even with my waking eyes, and all else fades.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Stars, Memories, Flower
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings”, p.916, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Memories, Dark, Feet
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings”, p.810, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Are you in pain, Frodo?' said Gandalf quietly as he rode by Frodo's side. 'Well, yes I am,' said Frodo. 'It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today.' 'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,' said Gandalf. 'I fear it may be so with mine,' said Frodo. 'There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?' Gandalf did not answer.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Pain, Memories, Real

Memory is not what the heart desires.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Memories, Heart, Desire
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.267, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess; it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Morning, Memories, Climbing

There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light came through it, as though a chink in the dark: light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly voice agin, bringing up memories of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such forgotten things.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Memories, Dark, Past
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.48, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Wise, Wisdom, Memories
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.264, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zaram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Memories, Heart, Dwarves
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.267, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Nay! Alas for us all! And for all that walk in the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed [...] for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the memory of Lothlórien shall remain ever clear and unstained in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Running, Memories, Blessed
J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.267, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

On two chairs beneath the bole of the tree and canopied by a living bough there sat, side by side, Celeborn and Galadriel... Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright; but no sign of age was upon them, unless it were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.

J. R. R. Tolkien
Beautiful, Memories, Eye

You May Also Like: