206 Quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien, a masterful storyteller and philologist, forged an indelible mark on the literary landscape with his creation of Middle-earth. Through epics like "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," Tolkien crafted a rich mythology replete with languages, cultures, and races, reflecting his own profound love for linguistics and folklore. His narrative prowess lies not just in the grandeur of battles and quests, but in the intricate emotions and struggles of his characters, making the fantastical world he conceived a mirror to our own human experiences. Beyond escapism, Tolkien's works grapple with themes of friendship, heroism, and the delicate dance between light and darkness. A steadfast academic and wordsmith, he demonstrated how fiction can be a vessel for profound reflections on the human condition, and his influence continues to be felt across genres, from fantasy literature to modern adaptations of his timeless tales.
J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes
It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons. (Meaning)
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. (Meaning)
It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit. (Meaning)
The greatest adventure is what lies ahead (Meaning)
There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for. (Meaning)
Above all shadows rides the sun. (Meaning)
The burned hand teaches best. (Meaning)
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. (Meaning)
Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. (Meaning)
Little by little, one travels far (Meaning)
A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities. (Meaning)
His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom. (Meaning)
Courage is found in unlikely places. (Meaning)
Deep roots are not reached by the frost. (Meaning)
Do not spoil the wonder with haste! (Meaning)
May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks. (Meaning)
You can only come to the morning through the shadows. (Meaning)
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. (Meaning)
It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish. (Meaning)
A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it. (Meaning)
Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate. (Meaning)
The wise speak only of what they know (Meaning)
A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. (Meaning)
False hopes are more dangerous than fears. (Meaning)
For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make. (Meaning)
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to. (Meaning)
The world is not in your books and maps, it's out there. (Meaning)
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. (Meaning)
All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others. (Meaning)
Not everyone who wanders is lost. (Meaning)
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. (Meaning)
Oft hope is born when all is forlorn. (Meaning)
Speak politely to an enraged dragon. (Meaning)
I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge. (Meaning)
The treacherous are ever distrustful. (Meaning)
Short cuts make long delays. (Meaning)
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. (Meaning)
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom. (Meaning)
Where will wants not, a way opens. (Meaning)
May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out. (Meaning)
Don't go where I can't follow! (Meaning)
What does your heart tell you? (Meaning)
True education is a kind of never-ending story . . . (Meaning)
True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one. (Meaning)
I do not believe this darkness will endure. (Meaning)
All that is gold does not glitter. (Meaning)
A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship. (Meaning)
Often does hatred hurt itself. (Meaning)
I will not walk backward in life. (Meaning)
Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine. (Meaning)
Home is now behind you, the world is ahead! (Meaning)
Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. (Meaning)
I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. (Meaning)
Never laugh at live dragons. (Meaning)
There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world. (Meaning)
I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. (Meaning)
his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front. (Meaning)
For even the very wise cannot see all ends. (Meaning)
Faithful heart may have froward tongue. (Meaning)
It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort (Meaning)
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles. (Meaning)
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory (Meaning)
A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds. (Meaning)
If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. (Meaning)
Great heart will not be denied. (Meaning)
Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars. (Meaning)
To crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face (Meaning)
Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall. (Meaning)
Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters. (Meaning)
I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing! (Meaning)
There is no ship now that can bear me hence (Meaning)
Handsome is as handsome does (Meaning)
The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards. (Meaning)
If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it. (Meaning)
Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is. (Meaning)
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. (Meaning)
I wisely started with a map. (Meaning)
He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can. (Meaning)
Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them. (Meaning)
I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren. (Meaning)
Aure entuluva! day shall come again! (Meaning)
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings. (Meaning)
Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked). (Meaning)
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations. (Meaning)
Tears unnumbered ye shall shed. (Meaning)
May the hair on your toes never fall out! (Meaning)
out of the frying pan and into the fire (Meaning)
The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. (Meaning)
All shall love me and despair. (Meaning)
Memory is not what the heart desires. (Meaning)
I am in fact, a hobbit in all but size (Meaning)
Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall (Meaning)
No Victory Without Suffering (Meaning)
Your lullaby would waken a drunken goblin! (Meaning)
We must do without hope. (Meaning)
Third time pays for all (Meaning)
Fair speech may hide a foul heart. (Meaning)
I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones. (Meaning)
I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure. (Meaning)
It is mine to give to whom I will, like my heart. (Meaning)
Over hill and under hill (Meaning)
I'm going on an adventure! (Meaning)
What punishments of God are not gifts? (Meaning)
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,The crownless again shall be king. (Meaning)
Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes. (Meaning)
Slight changes simply make a blur. (Meaning)
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.
How do you move on? You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king."
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
The chief purpose of life, for any of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.
It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons.
It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.
There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.
A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.
May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
The world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, For none now live who remember it.
May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
Above all shadows rides the sun.
All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.
Frodo: Go back, Sam! I’m going to Mordor alone. Sam: Of course you are, and I’m coming with you!
How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep...that have taken hold.
There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet.
All that is gold does not glitter.
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.
It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
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?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
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?
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.
For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.
There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.
You can only come to the morning through the shadows.
False hopes are more dangerous than fears.
No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.
You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
Do not spoil the wonder with haste!
The world is not in your books and maps, it's out there.
Little by little, one travels far
Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life.
The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.
The Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story — and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.
The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft 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.
We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.
There are truths, that are beyond us, transcendent truths, about beauty, truth, honor, etc. There are truths that man knows exist, but they cannot be seen - they are immaterial, but no less real, to us. It is only through the language of myth that we can speak of these truths.
The most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
True education is a kind of never ending story — a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness.
There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.
Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand-—that and such hope as I bring.
Courage is found in unlikely places.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
The greatest adventure is what lies ahead
Not everyone who wanders is lost.
A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.
For you do not yet know the strengths of your hearts, and you cannot foresee what each may meet on the road.
It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.
I am not a 'democrat' only because 'humility' and equality are spiritual principles corrupted by the attempt to mechanize and formalize them, with the result that we get not universal smallness and humility, but universal greatness and pride, till some Orc gets hold of a ring of power--and then we get and are getting slavery.
It is no bad thing celebrating a simple life.
Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth.
For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.
I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at.
When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold, Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold; When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!
Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart, and strive for patience, if you can.
If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: 'What is the purpose of life?' is unaskable and unanswerable.
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.
Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.
Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.
I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door.
The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
The wise speak only of what they know
I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.
Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better.
End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take.
Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on on the story.
My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy.
It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.
Legends and myths are largely made of 'truth'.
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
True education is a kind of never-ending story.
You aren't nearly through this adventure yet.
The burned hand teaches best.
Each of us embodies, in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time & place, universal truth and everlasting life.
You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power.
Things will go as they will, and there is no need to hurry to meet them.
Short cuts make long delays.
Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.
You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil.
A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.
And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.
Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet though you do not see them
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.
We are being at once wisely aware of our own frivolity if we avoid hitting and whacking and prefer 'striking' and 'smiting'; talk and chat and prefer 'speech' and 'discourse'; well-bred, brilliant, or polite noblemen (visions of snobbery columns in the Press, and fat men on the Riviera) and prefer the 'worthy, brave and courteous men' of long ago.
For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more--remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.
I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and of people who will see a world that I shall never know.
Far more often [than asking the question 'Is it true?'] they [children] have asked me: 'Was he good? Was he wicked?' That is, they were far more concerned to get the Right side and the Wrong side clear. For that is a question equally important in History and in Faerie.
The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.
Often does hatred hurt itself.
Speak politely to an enraged dragon.
American English is essentially English after having been wiped off with a dirty sponge.
Where there are so many, all speech becomes a debate without end. But two together may perhaps find wisdom.
Many folk like to know beforehand what is to be set on the table; but those who have laboured to prepare the feast like to keep their secret; for wonder makes the words of praise louder.
What does your heart tell you?
Why was I chosen?' 'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
I do not believe this darkness will endure.
True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one.
I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White.
Where will wants not, a way opens.
I've always been impressed that we are here, surviving, because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.
Don't go where I can't follow!
Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
Without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless
Adventures make one late for supper.
The treacherous are ever distrustful.
We are never late. We arrive precisely when we mean to.
All's well that ends better.
I don't know, and I would rather not guess.
If we all got angry together something might be done.
― J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
