“Master of the Dark Shadow. For I also, Niniel, had my darkness, in which dear things were lost; but now I have overcome it, I deem.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril he cried aloud: ‘I’m coming Mr. Frodo!”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Well, you have now, Sam, dear Sam,’ said Frodo, and he lay back in Sam’s gentle arms, closing his eyes, like a child at rest when night-fears are driven away by some loved voice or hand. Sam felt that he could sit like that in endless happiness…”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Goodbye, master, my dear! Forgive your Sam. He’ll come back to this spot when the job’s done – if he manages it. And then he’ll not leave you again. Rest you quiet till I come; and may no foul creature come anigh you! And if the Lady could hear me and give me one wish, I would wish to come back and find you again. Good bye!”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Clothes are but little loss, if you escape from drowning.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“All that is gold does not glitter…”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Roads go ever ever onUnder cloud and under starYet feet that wandering have goneTurn at last to home afar.Eyes that fire and sword have seenAnd horror in the halls of stoneLook at last on meadows greenAnd trees and hills they long have known.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Elves say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“You could call her perilous because she was so strong in herself.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“If we was master, then we could help ourselves.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“The more ‘life’ a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Touching your cap to the squire may be damn bad for the squire, but it’s damn good for you.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.” ? J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“I am at home among trees.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Well, you can go on looking forward,” said Gandalf. “There may be many unexpected feasts ahead of you.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“A story must be told or there’ll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men. -On Fairy Stories”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Sam: I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or tales. Frodo: [turns around] What? Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, ‘Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring.’ And they’ll say ‘Yes, that’s one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn’t he, Dad?’ ‘Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that’s saying a lot.’ Frodo: [continue walking] You’ve left out one of the chief characters – Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. [stops and turns to Sam] Frodo: Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam. Sam: Now Mr. Frodo, you shouldn’t make fun; I was being serious. Frodo: So was I. [they continue to walk] Sam: Samwise the Brave…”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“His knowledge was deep, but his pride has grown with it.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“But perhaps you could call her perilous because she’s so strong in herself. You , you could dash yourself to pieces on her, like a ship on a rock, or drown yourself, like a Hobbit in a river, but neither rock nor river would be to blame.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“A ruler who discerning justice refuseth to it the sanction of law, demanding abnegation of rights and self-sacrifice, will not drive his subjects to these virtues, virtuous only if free, but by unnaturally making justice unlawful, will drive them rather to rebellion against all law.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Don’t the great tales never end?””No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“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.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Some who have read the book, or at any rate reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no reason to complain, since I have similar opinions of their work, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien