Quotessence
Home / Books / The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Book by J. R. R. Tolkien · 50 quotes · Evil, Stories, World

Filter quotes by topic

AllEvilStoriesWorldCatholicFaithIfsLongRingsCoursesLanguageLegendsMayRealTolkienBelieveBlessedBlessed SacramentHeartHumansKnows

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes

“It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that 'legends' depend on the language to which they belong; but a living language depends equally on the 'legends' which it conveys by tradition. ... Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &c &c are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends.”

MadeWarLanguageDependsDiscoveryTraditionAncientLegendsEsperanto
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“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.”

SpiritualResultsPrinciplesGreatnessHumilityPrideUniversalSlaveryDemocratRingsSmallnessOrcs
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“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
Create image

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.”

WorldLittlesRealSoulMightCareFoundMemoriesPerfectMistakeMarriageMarriedPartnersMatesImperfectSuitableSoul MateA Perfect WorldPerfect Marriage
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“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.”

DoeInspirationFaithGrowsPerfectWeekEffectsExerciseHighestBlessedSevenChristian InspirationalCuresCommunionSacramentsFrequencyIntervalsBlessed SacramentFaintingCatholic FaithSagging
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“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
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingWritingYearsSaidStillsFactsStoriesRememberMotherLanguageTakenGreenSignificantDragons
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.”

IfsKnowsDoneCoursesEvilNationsDifferencesMilitaryVictoryPleasePaperJewLocalsGood And EvilArticlesSelectSolemnSystematicAdvocatingRattlesnakesVermin
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“It is not wholly true, and it is not perfectly ‘theocentric’. It takes, or at any rate has in the past taken, the young man’s eyes off women as they are, as companions in shipwreck not guiding stars. (One result is for observation of the actual to make the young man turn cynical.) To forget their desires, needs and temptations. It inculcates exaggerated notions of ‘true love’, as a fire from without, a permanent exaltation, unrelated to age, childbearing, and plain life, and unrelated to will and purpose. (One result of that is to make young folk look for a ‘love’ that will keep them always nice and warm in a cold world, without any effort of theirs; and the incurably romantic go on looking even in the squalor of the divorce courts).”

LoveGodRomanceDesire
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have remained ‘righteous’, but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and order things for ‘good’, and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which was and would have remained great). [The draft ends here. In the margin Tolkien wrote: ‘Thus while Sauron multiplied [illegible word] evil, he left “good” clearly distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil.’] Letter 246 From a letter to Mrs Eileen Elgar (drafts)”

EvilGoodLord Of The RingsTolkienGandalfSauron
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“I perceived or thought of the Light of God and in it suspended one small mote (or millions of motes to only one of which was my small mind directed), glittering white because of the individual ray from the Light which both held and lit it...And the ray was the Guardian Angel of the mote: not a thing interposed between God and the creature, but God's very attention itself, personalized...This is a finite parallel to the Infinite. As the love of the Father and Son (who are infinite and equal) is a Person, so the love and attention of the Light to the Mote is a person (that is both with us and in Heaven): finite but divine, i.e. angelic.”

GodLightCatholicTrinityGuardian AngelLetter 89
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“I have at last got busy about Mummy's grave. . . . . The inscription I should like is: EDITH MARY TOLKIEN 1889-1971 Lúthien :brief and jejune, except for Lúthien, which says for me more than a multitude of words: for she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien. … I never called Edith Lúthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. Letter 340 From a letter to Christopher Tolkien”

TolkienSilmarillionLuthien
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“Sihri' tutarlı bir biçimde kullanmadım; Elf kraliçesi Galadriel hikayede, bu sözcüğü, Düşman'ın da Elflerin de hem araçları hem de harekatı hakkında kullanan kafası karışık Hobbit'lere serzenişte bulunmakta haklı. bu benim için geçerli değil, çünkü ikincisinin karşılığı olan bir sözcük yok. Fakat Elfler burada farkı ortaya koyuyorlar. Onların 'sihri' insanın sınırlılıklarından kurtulduğu Sanat: çok daha az çabayla, daha hızlı, daha karmaşık. Ve bu edimlerinin nesnesi Güç değil Sanat, Yaratının tahakküm altına alınması değil, alt-yaratıdır.”

SanatMektupMetafor
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image

“It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that "legends" depend on the language to which they belong; but a living language depends equally on the "legends" which it conveys by tradition. (For example, that the Greek mythology depends far more on the marvellous aesthetic of its language and so of its nomenclature of persons and places and less on its content than people realize, though of course it depends on both. And vice versa. Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &C. are dead, for deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends.). (letter 180)”

LanguageLanguagesLanguages And CultureLanguages And Cultures
Book:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Create image