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J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

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Famous J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

“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.”

IfsWorldNeedsGivingTryingEarthEvilGivenFailingMiddleThousandGiving UpMadnessObstaclesTinyRingsObsessionQuestsSaneBurnedMagnificentNot Giving UpGiven UpTry AgainGlowingMusterFrodoMiddle EarthSamwiseFesteringSamwise GamgeeMalignancy
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Gandalf: Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee. Have you been eavesdropping? Sam: I ain't been droppin' no eaves sir, honest. I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you'll follow me. Gandalf: A little late for trimming the verge, don't you think? Sam: I heard raised voices. Gandalf: What did you hear? Speak. Sam: N-nothing important. That is, I heard a good deal about a ring, and a Dark Lord, and something about the end of the world, but... Please, Mr. Gandalf, sir, don't hurt me. Don't turn me into anything... unnatural.”

IfsThinkingWorldLittlesImportantEndsTurnsSpeakVoiceHurtDarkDealsLordCuttingHeardHonestPleaseLateWindowRaisedRingsGrassEnd Of The WorldFellowshipUnnaturalHurt MeFollow MeVergeTurn MeFellowship Of The RingLord Of The RingEavesdroppingTrimmingSamwiseSamwise GamgeeDon't Hurt Me
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“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.”

StoriesChristianJoyLostEmotionProduceTearsSorrowEssentialsSelfishnessFairyResurrectionLost LoveAltruismJoys And SorrowsFairy Stories
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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“Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!”

SonBrokenAidsFlamesCriedBladesHeirsCloaksForgedGondor
Book:The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel.”

IfsKnowsShouldFirstsHardEvilHouseSpeakWhiteHealingTalkingPathSawsFlowerProudFairsStandingQueensUnhappinessSteelDoomLiliesMaidensEowynWhite Flowers
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“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!”

WorldDreamLyingSleepTreeLandWindSummerGoldGreenWestHallsRoofNoonWoodlandCome Back To MeEnt
Book:The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“Roads go ever ever on, Over rock and under tree, By caves where never sun has shone, By streams that never find the sea; Over snow by winter sown, And through the merry flowers of June, Over grass and over stone, And under mountains of the moon. Roads go ever ever on Under cloud and under star, Yet feet that wandering have gone Turn at last to home afar. Eyes that fire and sword have seen And horror in the halls of stone Look at last on meadows green And trees and hills they long have known”

LooksLongHomeEyeLastsTurnsStarsKnownSunGoneFireTreeSeaFeetRocksFlowerHorrorMoonMountainStonesGreenWinterCloudsSnowWanderHillsGrassStreamsHallsCavesJuneMerryMeadowsAfar
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment.”

ThinkingKnowsWayWellsMomentsUseHandsSeemsLyingCertainFallFeltCareersParticularColdMetsTinyRingsPocketsSwimmingMetalsTunnelsGood WayTurning PointsLying On The Floor
Book:The Hobbit
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“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. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least.”

GivingHeartMayEndsPlayDiesChanceDealsWiseFateMy HeartDeserveBoundsIllRingsPityJudgementFrodoVery WiseFellowship Of The RingLord Of The Ring
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Elrond raised his eyes and looked at him, and Frodo felt his heart pierced by the sudden keenness of the glance. 'If I understand aright all that I have heard,' he said, 'I think that this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not find a way, no one will.”

IfsThinkingWayHeartSaidEyeFeltHeardTasksRaisedHis EyesGlancesFrodoKeennessElrond
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“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.”

LongRealStoriesMightNamesLanguageGrowingLong TimeLovelySay AnythingTwo Towers
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
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“Cold be hand and heart and bone, and cold be sleep under stone: never more to wake on stony bed, never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead. In the black wind the stars shall die, and still on gold here let them lie, till the dark lord lifts his hand over dead sea and withered land.”

HeartStillsHandsLyingDiesStarsBlackDarkSleepLordSunFailingSeaLandWindColdBedMoonStonesGoldBonesLiftsWithered
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“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.”

IfsThinkingKnowsYearsWellsLongFeelingsMightCareAgeEarthGivenFeltMemoriesBehindsSunTreeSkyGrewFilledAffairSurfaceEndlessEnormousLakesSteadyRoofConsideringLeafsVery DeepRippleSparklingEarth And SkyFilled Up
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Haldir had gone on and was now climbing to the high flet. As Frodo prepared to follow him, he laid his hand upon the tree beside the ladder: never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree's skin and of the life within it. He felt a delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the delight of the living tree itself.”

FeelsHandsFeltGoneTreeSkinsPreparedDelightWoodsClimbingLaddersTextureCarpenterFrodo
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
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“I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a Shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.”

JoySongGrowsSunShadowAll ThingsAnd LoveTowersRidersBarrenHealerDepartedReturn Of The KingSlayingEowyn
Book:The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
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