J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Lightthrough whom is splintered from a single Whiteto many hues, and endlessly combinedin living shapes that move from mind to mind.

[But] I fear that in the individual lives of all but a few, the balance is in debit - we do so little that is positive good, even if we negatively avoid what is actively evil.

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.

Wise men speak only of what they know

A King will have his way in his own hall, be it folly or wisdom.

Indeed if fish had fish-lore and Wise-fish, it is probable that the business of anglers would be very little hindered.

Don't trust your head, Samwise, it is not the best part of you.

I can manage, " said Frodo. "I must.

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's risingI came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing.To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

Being a cheerful hobbit, he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.

Above all shadows rides the Sunand Stars for ever dwell:I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell.

The day will bring hope for me, " said Aragorn. "Is it not said that no foe has ever taken the Hornburg, if men defended it?""So the minstrels say, " said Éomer."Then let us defend it, and hope!

Dawn is ever the hope of men.

Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I goTo heal my heart and drown my woeRain may fall, and wind may blowAnd many miles be still to goBut under a tall tree will I lieAnd let the clouds go sailing by

The world was fair, the mountains tallIn Elder Days before the fall...

Far over misty mountains coldTo dungeons deep and caverns oldWe must away, ere break of day, To find our long-forgotten gold.

In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.

Lewis had developed a trademark style, slow enough for note taking, loud enough to rouse the dullest listener, straightforward, abundantly furnished with quotations, and lavish in wit.

A letter Lewis wrote reveals an 18-year-old with the energy of a schoolboy and the tastes of an octogenarian.

What do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked. "A cage, " [Éowyn] said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.

I fear I am beyond your comprehension. - Gandalf the White

In the infancy of society every author is necessarily a poet, because language itself is poetry. – Owen Barfield

Words are catch-basins of experience, fingerprints and footprints of the past that the literary detective may scrutinize in order to sleuth out the history of human consciousness.

Imagination pointed toward truth but could not disclose it directly.

At that moment there was a knock on the door, and Sam came in. He ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly and shyly. He stroked it gently and then he blushed and turned hastily away.

Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts.

The grey-rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

We have had enough of the old men and the money-counters!" And people further off took up the cry: "Up Bowman, and down with the moneybags,

We must picture Oxford, during World War I, not as the neomedieval paradise it would like to be, but as the military compound it was obliged to become.

Nightingales sang about her wherever she went.

Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful.

He has led us in here against our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to himself.

He did not falter, as long as there was a path that led toward his goal.

The arts are the best Time Machine we have." C. S. Lewis

...as young and as ancient as Spring....

...and all the stars flowered in the sky.

[Hobbits] love peace and quiet and a good tilled earth.

Now he must put into practice all his fine poetic thoughts about romantic love.

...and for a great deal it seemed good to him, for in the music there were no flaws.

But have a care! It is a bitter blade, and steel serves only those that can wield it. It will cut your hand as willingly as aught else.

True courage is knowing not when to take a life, but to save one.

Fly, you fools!' he cried, and was gone.

The love of Arda was set in your hearts by Ilúvatar, and he does not plant to no purpose.

I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler. -Frodo Baggins

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.

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.

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.

The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.

Is there any pleasure on earth as great as the circle of Christian friends by a good fire?

Grief is a hone to a hard mind.