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J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

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Famous J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

“You are a set of deceitful scoundrels! But bless you! I give in. I will take Gildor's advice. If the danger were not so dark, I should dance for joy. Even so, I cannot help feeling happy; happier than I have felt for a long time.”

IfsGivingShouldLongHelpingFeelingsJoyLyingFeltDarkAdviceDangerLong TimeDeceitBlessScoundrelsDeceitfulFeeling Happy
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.”

IfsHeartHardLightUnderstandingColdHorrorStonesFishesEndlessPityResolveFlashGlimpseWhisperingBettermentStone Cold
Book:The Hobbit
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“Then, Éowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful. In the valleys of our hills there are flowers fair and bright, and maidens fairer still; but neither flower nor lady have I seen till now in Gondor so lovely, and so sorrowful. It may be that only a few days are left ere darkness falls upon our world, and when it comes I hope to face it steadily; but it would ease my heart, if while the Sun yet shines, I could see you still. For you and I have both passed under the wings of the Shadow, and the same hand drew us back.”

IfsWorldHeartMayStillsHandsBeautifulFacesFallLeftDarknessSunFlowerMy HeartShadowFairsWingsShiningLovelyHillsEaseOur WorldValleysMaidensSorrowfulYou Are BeautifulGondorRohan
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“They hammered on the outer gate and called, but there was at first no answer; and then to their surprise someone blew a horn, and the lights in the windows went out. A voice shouted in the dark: 'Who's that? Be off! You can't come in. Can't you read the notice: No admittance between sundown and sunrise?' 'Of course we can't read the notice in the dark,' Sam shouted back. 'And if hobbits of the Shire are to be kept out in the wet on a night like this, I'll tear down your notice when I find it.”

IfsFirstsLightNightCoursesVoiceDarkAnswersTearsWindowSurpriseGatesWetSunriseHornsHammeredShireAdmittance
Book:The Lord of the Rings: The return of the King
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“I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds at the Gate. . . If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

IfsWorldLittlesWould BeSongFatherWishWaitingGoldDeedsSilverGatesHallsCheerGold And SilverThorin
Book:The Hobbit
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“I am old, Gandalf. I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something.”

IfsKnowsNeedsFeelsWellsLooksHeartMeanHas BeensToo MuchMy HeartTiredBreadNeed A ChangeFellowship Of The RingI Need A Change
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“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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“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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“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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“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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“Mercy!" cried Gandalf. "If the giving of knowledge is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more should you like to know?" "The names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of Middle-Earth and Over-heave and of the Sundering Seas," laughed Pippin. "Of course! What less?”

IfsKnowsGivingShouldWholeEarthCoursesNamesStarsSeaMiddleMercyCuresLaughedCriedLiving ThingsMiddle EarthTwo TowersPippin
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death. . . . . . (quoting an obituary) 'There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever happens to man is natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it he would sense to it an unjustifiable violation.' Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord Of The Rings”

IfsKnowsMenWorldHumansWellsMayWholeStoriesHappensDiesNaturalLordOne ThingKeysSpringAgreeAccidentsEvery ManRingsWhole WorldViolationInevitabilityQuotingObituaryNatural DeathInevitability Of Death
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Of course, it is likely enough, my friends,' he said slowly, 'likely enough that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents. But if we stayed home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. That thought has long been growing in our hearts; and that is why we are marching now. It was not a hasty resolve. Now at least the last march of the Ents may be worth a song.”

IfsHeartMayLongSaidEnoughHomeLastsSongCoursesGrowingMy FriendsMarchResolveSooner Or LaterDoomHastyEnt
Book:The Lord of the Rings part two the Two Towers
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“the association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history. Fairy-stories have in the modern lettered world been relegated to the “nursery,” as shabby or old-fashioned furniture is relegated to the play-room, primarily because the adults do not want it, and do not mind if it is misused.”

IfsWorldWantMindChildrenPlayStoriesRoomsModernAdultsAccidentsFairyAssociationOld FashionedFurnitureNurseryShabbyMisusedFairy Stories
Book:Tales from the Perilous Realm
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“I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.”

IfsKnowsFeelsShouldLongHas BeensMightLyingFeltBehindsFeetStupidSafeComfortableBe GoodWanderFirmDullIf I CouldDragonsInvasionEarthquakesBearableFellowship Of The RingShire
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glóin!”

IfsLightJoyNightDarkKnownLordTakenWorstDangerSonWoundsTormentAlasPartingSaying GoodbyeHold MeGimli
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
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“We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor. We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt. "Not if I found it on the highway would I take it," I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take those words as a vow, and be held by them.”

IfsMenShouldSaidStillsDesireDiesFoundSpokesSpeakersBoastHighwaysVowGondorFaramir
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
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“I don't know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back. It isn't right to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want - I don't rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.”

IfsKnowsWayWantFeelsKindLongI CanDifferentEndsSeemsLastsLyingNightTurnsDarknessKnow HowMountainDragonsLast NightUnderstand MeLong RoadShire
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“And so it was settled. Sam Gamgee married Rose Cotton in the spring of 1420 (which was also famous for its weddings), and they came and lived at Bag End. And if Sam thought himself lucky, Frodo knew that he was more lucky himself; for there was not a hobbit in the Shire that was looked after with such care. When the labours or repair had all been planned and set going he took to a quiet life, writing a good deal and going through all his notes. He resigned the office of Deputy Mayor at the Free Fair that Midsummer, and dear old Will Whitfoot had another seven years of presiding at Banquets.”

IfsWritingYearsEndsCareDealsLuckyQuietOfficeMarriedSpringFairsRoseNotesSevenDearLabourBagsSeven YearsMayorsCottonResignedBanquetsFrodoMidsummerDeputiesQuiet LifeReturn Of The KingShireSam Gamgee
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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