Quotessence
Home / Authors / J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsSaidMayRingsWorldFrodoMenHeartFellowship Of The RingEndsKnowsLongLord Of The RingStillsMiddle EarthReturn Of The KingDarkFrodo BagginsTwo TowersWells

Famous J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

“The news today about 'Atomic bombs' is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope 'this will ensure peace'. But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.”

IfsMenWorldGivingWritingWellsLooksMayDoeWarHandsTodayPurposeMoralOughtNewsIntellectualDestructionGood ThingsAriseFollyBombsJapanConsentCavesPhysicistLunaticBuilderFirearmsExplosivesAtomic BombStunnedInmatesBabel
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
Create image

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

IfsWorldLifeWould BeEarthHappinessJoySongChangeWealthMoneyMusicHuman NatureFoodWise WordsGratitudeEatingGoldCookingGreedAppreciationUpliftingChanging The WorldCulinaryCheerEpicGodlyRecipesDiningChildren's BooksCheer UpHoardingFood And DrinkHealthy FoodHealthy EatingEating FoodFood And EatingTastyChildren BookGreat FoodMiddle EarthDelicious FoodHome CookingLearn To AppreciateFavorite FoodsBest FoodGourmet FoodEating WellHunger For FoodCulinary LoveGreat HobbitEating Healthy FoodValued FriendsMore The MerrierThorin
Book:The Hobbit
Create image

“And Gandalf said: "This is your realm, and the heart of the greater realm that shall be. The Third Age of the world is ended, and the new age is begun; and it is your task to order its beginning and to preserve what must be preserved. For though much has been saved, much must now pass away; and the power of the Three Rings also is ended. And all the lands that you see, and those that lie round about them, shall be dwellings of Men. For the time comes of the Dominion of Men, and the Elder Kindred shall fade or depart.”

MenWorldHeartHas BeensSaidAgeLyingOrderThreeGreaterLandTasksThirdsRoundsSavedRingsPreservesRealmsFadesNew AgeEldersDwellingDominionPassing AwayKindred
Book:The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
Create image

“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”

WorldMayHardHandsEyeMovingCoursesStrongWeakDeedsWheelsElsewhereQuestsFellowship Of The RingSmall Hands
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
Create image

“Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”

IfsWorldGivingDoeFacesJoyGriefExistencePossibilityWallSorrowEvidenceUniversalFinalsDefeatDenyTalesFairyFairy TaleGlimpseFleetingDeliverancePoignant
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
Create image

“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?" A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.”

WorldSaidSoundWaterHappenedHeardLandPureLaughterShadowLaughedUntrueDepartedMerriment
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
Create image

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”

KnowsWorldYearsMayEarthEvilFieldsMastersCleanWeatherTidesMiddle EarthReturn Of The KingEvil WorldUprooting
Book:The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
Create image

“That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called, is say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.”

WorldBelieveMaySeemsPurposeChanceLandMetsStrangerPeril
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
Create image

“So it ends as I guessed it would,' his thoughts said, even as it fluttered away; and it laughed a little within him ere it fled, almost gay it seemed to be casting off all doubt and care and fear. And even as it winged away into forgetfulness it heard voices, and they seemed to be crying in some forgotten world far above: 'The eagles are coming! The eagles are coming!' For one moment more Pippin's thought hovered. "Bilbo! But no! That came in his tale, long long ago. This is my tale, and it ended now. Good-bye!' And his thought fled far away and his eyes saw no more.”

WorldLittlesLongSaidEndsMomentsEyeCareVoiceDoubtSawsHeardCryGayForgottenTalesHis EyesLaughedFar AwayLong AgoCastingEaglesByeForgetfulnessGood ByePippinCasting Off
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
Create image

“Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”

WorldLittlesPersonsHandsAdventureFineBenefitsFellowsLuckMereWideAbout YourselfSoleProphecy
Book:The Hobbit
Create image

“Yet at the last Beren was slain by the Wolf that came from the gates of Angband, and he died in the arms of Tinúviel. But she chose mortality, and to die from the world, so that she might follow him; and it is sung that they met again beyond the Sundering Seas, and after a brief time walking alive once more in the green woods, together they passed, long ago, beyond the confines of this world. So it is that Lúthien Tinúviel alone of the Elf-kindred has died indeed and left the world, and they have lost her whom they most loved.”

WorldLongMightTogetherLastsDiesLostLeftAliveSeaThis WorldArmsWalkingMetsDiedGreenWoodsGatesMortalityLong AgoTinKindred
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
Create image

“I knew that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can't a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?" "But it is not your own Shire," said Gildor. "Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”

WorldSaidCoursesWaterWalksDangerRiversLaysWideFenceShire
Book:The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
Create image

“Shadowfax tossed his head and cried aloud, as if a trumpet had summoned him to battle. Then he sprang forward. Fire flew from his feet; night rushed over him. As he fell slowly into sleep, Pippin had a strange feeling: he and Gandalf were still as stone, seated upon the statue of a running horse, while the world rolled away beneath his feet with a great noise of wind.”

IfsWorldStillsFeelingsRunningNightSleepFireFeetStrangeWindBattleStonesHorseNoiseCriedStatuesFlewTrumpetsPippin
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
Create image

“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”

KnowsWorldWayWantEndsSometimesStoriesLordDarknessHappenedDangerShadowRingsPassingPassingsTowersWorth Fighting ForSun ShinesFrodoFrodo BagginsTwo TowersThings Worth Fighting ForSamwiseGreat HobbitFantasy StoriesSam Gamgee
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
Create image

“Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. Though all the crannies of the world we filled with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build Gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we're made.”

MenWorldMindMadeStillsLightMovingLawUsedHouseDarkWhiteShapesFilledCreatorSeedsDragonsHueMisusedGoblin
Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
Create image

“Nay! Alas for us all! And for all that walk in the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed [...] for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the memory of Lothlórien shall remain ever clear and unstained in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.”

WorldWayHeartSeemsMightRunningSufferingGrowsLosesMemoriesLossWalksClearBlessedRewardsChosenBoatStreamsFree WillCompanionFadesAlasStaleForsakenYour LossGimli
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
Create image

“Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadows to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight. Then world behind and home ahead, We'll wander back and home to bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade!”

WorldHomeNightStarsBehindsPathBedShadowCloudsEdgesWanderShadeFadesTwilightMistFade AwayMany Paths
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image