Top 791 Quotes & Sayings by J. R. R. Tolkien

They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited 'first chapters'. I have indeed written many.

It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend's folly.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

I never liked Hans Christian Andersen because I knew he was always getting at me.

Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world.

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!

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

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.

You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.

A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.

The original 'Hobbit' was never intended to have a sequel - Bilbo 'remained very happy to the end of his days and those were extraordinarily long': a sentence I find an almost insuperable obstacle to a satisfactory link.

Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you.

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.

Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt.

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it's my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.

The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.

I don't like allegories.

'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'

A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.

Courage is found in unlikely places.

A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds.

Middle English is an exciting field - almost uncharted, I begin to think, because as soon as one turns detailed personal attention on to any little corner of it, the received notions and ideas seem to crumple up and fall to pieces - as far as language goes, at any rate.

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

In October 1920 I went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, with a free commission to develop the linguistic side of a large and growing School of English Studies, in which no regular provision had as yet been made for the linguistic specialist.

Short cuts make long delays.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Not all those who wander are lost.

It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.

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.

Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

How do you move on? You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back.

The wise speak only of what they know

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead

We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming 'sub-creator' and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.

I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet though you do not see them

True education is a kind of never ending story — a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness.

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead. Today and tomorrow are yet to be said. The chances, the changes are all yours to make. The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.

May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.

It is no bad thing celebrating a simple life.

The chief purpose of life, for any of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.

It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons.

It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.

False hopes are more dangerous than fears.

The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that one day everything sad will come untrue.

Above all shadows rides the sun.

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.