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J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

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Famous J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”

WorldFirstsStoriesCoursesReligiousLordPracticeCuttingElementsCatholicRingsImaginaryCultSymbolismRevisionImaginary World
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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“I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language.”

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Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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“They arose in my mind as 'given' things, and as they came, separately, so too the links grew. An absorbing, though continually interrupted labour (especially, even apart from the necessities of life, since the mind would wing to the other pole and spread itself on the linguistics): yet always I had the sense of recording what was already 'there', somewhere: not of 'inventing'.”

MindGivenGrewWingsSpreadLabourLinksInventingInterruptedAbsorbingLinguistics
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.”

WorldMindBelieveLittlesArtMomentsStoriesHappensLawSuccessfulMagicBrokenProveCreatorArisePrimariesRelateMakersSpellsAccordDisbelief
Book:Tales from the Perilous Realm
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“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.”

IfsMenWellsLongVisionSpeechPressesBraveWorthyBrilliantFatsHittingLong AgoPoliteDiscourseColumnsCourteousSnobberyFrivolityFat ManNoblemen
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white whose gentle voice was soft and sad.”

HandsLightBeautifulFallLeftVoiceDarkSimpleWhiteTerribleLaughterEndureRingsGentleTallLaughedMeasurementSeemingFadedSlenderFrodoGaladriel
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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