J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

“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).”

“But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.”

“I don't see why the likes o' theeWithout axin' leave should go makin' freeWith the shank or the shin o' my father's kin;So hand the old bone over!Rover! Trover!Though dead he be, it belongs to he;So hand the old bnone over!”

“The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.The chances, the changes are all yours to make.The mold of your life is in your hands to break.”

“He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

“With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter!”

“And he sang to them, now in the Elven tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”

“One tiny Hobbit against all the evil the world could muster. A sane being would have given up, but Samwise burned with a magnificent madness, a glowing obsession to surmount every obstacle, to find Frodo, destroy the Ring, and cleanse Middle Earth of its festering malignancy. He knew he would try again. Fail, perhaps. And try once more. A thousand, thousand times if need be, but he would not give up the quest.”

“Eomer said, 'How is a man to judge what to do in such times?' As he has ever judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”

“The world was fair, the mountains tall In Elder Days before the fall.”

“We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful.”

“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?”

“In doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom.”

“Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary, and dungeons for the overbold.”

“the association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history. Fairy-stories have in the modern lettered world been relegated to the “nursery,” as shabby or old-fashioned furniture is relegated to the play-room, primarily because the adults do not want it, and do not mind if it is misused.”

“You can only come to the morning through the shadows.”

“Frodo: Go back, Sam! I’m going to Mordor alone. Sam: Of course you are, and I’m coming with you!”

“Life is rather above the measure of us all (save for a very few perhaps). We all need literature that is above our measure--though we may not have sufficient energy for it all the time.”

“And if Sam considered himself lucky, Frodo knew he was more lucky himself; for there was not a hobbit in the Shire that was looked after with such care.”

“Tomorrow we may come this way, And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun”

“And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy?”

“Home is now behind you, the world is ahead!”

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?”

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

“Together we will take the road that leads into the West, And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.”