J.r.r. Tolkien Quotes

Bilbo was sadly reflecting that adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine...

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

But our back is to legends and we are coming home. I suppose this is the first taste of it.''There is a long road yet,' said Gandalf.'But it is the last road,' said Bilbo.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

The stars are far brighterThan gems without measure,The moon is far whiterThan silver in treasure;The fire is more shiningOn hearth in the gloamingThan gold won by mining,So why go a-roaming?

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Few can see wither their road will lead them, till they comes to it's end. - Gimli

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

I pity snails, and all that carry their homes on their backs.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

It seemed like all the way to tomorrow and over it to the days beyond.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

As they sang the hobbit felt in love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. The choice is yours: to go or wait.''And it is also said,' answered Frodo: 'Go not to the Elves for counsel for they will answer both no and yes.''Is it indeed?' laughed Gildor. 'Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Justice is not Healing. Healing cometh only by suffering and patience, and maketh no demand, not even for Justice. Justice worketh only within the bonds of things as they are... and therefore though Justice is itself good and desireth no further evil, it can but perpetuate the evil that was, and doth not prevent it from the bearing of fruit in sorrow.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

And now leave me in peace for a bit! I don't want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think!Good Heavens! said Pippin. At breakfast?

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

I may be a burglar...but I'm an honest one, I hope, more or less.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,It lies behind stars and under hills,And empty holes it fills,It comes first and follows after,Ends life, kills laughter.

~ 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.' 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

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

Rover did not know in the least where the moon's path led to, and at present he was much too frightened and excited to ask, and anyway he was beginning to get used to extraordinary things happening to him.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

They hammered on the outer gate and called, but there was at first no answer; and then to their surprise someone blew a horn, and the lights in the windows went out. A voice shouted in the dark: 'Who's that? Be off! You can't come in. Can't you read the notice: No admittance between sundown and sunrise?' 'Of course we can't read the notice in the dark,' Sam shouted back. 'And if hobbits of the Shire are to be kept out in the wet on a night like this, I'll tear down your notice when I find it.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

You certainly usually find something if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

They were at the end of their journey, but as far as ever, it seemed, from the end of their quest.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

I'm going on an adventure

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils -- that has been more than any baggins deserves.

~ 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

What shall we do, what shall we do! Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves is like out of the frying pan and into the fire!

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and imperturbed pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Now when Túrin learnt from Finduilas of what had passed, he was wrathful, and he said to Gwindor: 'In love I hold you for your rescue and sake-keeping. But now you have done ill to me, friend, to betray my right name, and call my doom upon me, from which I would lie hid.'But Gwindor answered: 'The doom lies in yourself, not in your name.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go. It was an evil fate.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

How shall a man judge what to do in such times?''As he ever has judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear...It is a man's part to discern them, as much in th Golden Wood as in his own house.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

In account after account of exorcisms the demonic voices will propound nihilism of one variety or another.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

All his court were cast down in slumber, and all the fires faded and were quenched; but the Silmarils in the crown on Morgoth's head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame; and the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed down his head, as though the world were set upon it, laden with a weight of care, of fear, and of desire, that even the will of Morgoth could not support. Then Lúthien catching up her winged robe sprang into the air, and her voice came dropping down like rain into pools, profound and dark. She cast her cloak before his eyes, and set upon him a dream, dark as the outer Void where once he walked alone.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Not all that have fallen are vanquished.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

Now and again he spoke to those that served him and thanked them in their own language. They smiled at him and said laughing: 'Here is a jewel among hobbits!

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

It [discovering Finnish] was like discovering a wine-cellar filled with bottles of amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me.

~ 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

My name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien