Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2023 Update)
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451. “Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

452. “The eagles are coming!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

453. “But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet and good tilled earth.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

454. “I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days.’ Gandalf laughed. ‘I hope he will. But nobody will read the book, however it ends.’ ‘Oh, they may, in years to come. Frodo has read some already, as far as it has gone. You’ll keep an eye on Frodo, won’t you?’ ‘Yes, I will – two eyes, as often as I can spare them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

455. “The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

456. “Sleep! I feel the need of it, as never I thought any dwarf could, riding is tiring work. Yet my axe is restless in my hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

457. “You let them out again, Old Man Willow!’ he said. ‘What be you a-thinking of? You should not be waking. Eat earth! Dig deep! Drink water! Go to sleep! Bombadil is talking!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

458. “Touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire, but it’s damn good for you.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

459. “I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones...”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

460. “Well, no need to brood on what tomorrow may bring. For one thing, tomorrow will be certain to bring worse than today, for many days to come. And there is nothing more that I can do to help it. The board is set, and the pieces are moving. One.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

461. “We renounce no friendship. But it may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly. And.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

462. “Riders!’ cried Aragorn, springing to his feet. ‘Many riders on swift steeds are coming towards us!’ ‘Yes,’ said Legolas, ‘there are one hundred and five. Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is very tall.’ Aragorn smiled. ‘Keen are the eyes of the Elves,’ he said. ‘Nay! The riders are little more than five leagues distant,’ said Legolas.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

463. “It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not. I am glad that I know about them, a little.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

464. “It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

465. “The romantic chivalric tradition takes, or at any rate has in the past taken, the young man’s eye off women as they are, as companions in shipwreck not guiding stars.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

466. “What news from the North, O mighty wind, do you bring to me today? What news of Boromir the Bold? For he is long away.’ ‘Beneath Amon Hen I heard his cry. There many foes he fought. His cloven shield, his broken sword, they to the water brought. His head so proud, his face so fair, his limbs they laid to rest; And Rauros, golden Rauros-falls, bore him upon its breast.’ ‘O Boromir! The Tower of Guard shall ever northward gaze To Rauros, golden Rauros-falls, until the end of days.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

467. “I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

468. “Winter is nearly gone. Time flows on to a spring of little hope.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

469. “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.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

470. “I declare the Mountain besieged. You shall not depart from it, until you call on your side for a truce and a parley. We will bear no weapons against you, but we leave you to your gold. You may eat that, if you will!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

471. “We like the dark,” said all the dwarves. “Dark for dark business! There are many hours before dawn.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

472. “To think I should have lived to be goodmorninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

473. “Dwarves are not heroes, but a calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don’t expect too much.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

474. “Well, I am going back into the open air, to see what the wind and sky are doing!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

475. “For he was a gentle heart and a great king and kept his oaths; and he rose out of the shadows to a last fair morning.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

476. “But it seems that the wind is setting East, and the withering of all Woods may be drawing near.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

477. “Leave him! I said. I never mean to. I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon; and if any of these Black Riders try to stop him, they’ll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with, I said. They laughed.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

478. “My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

479. “For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

480. “Struck by lightning! Struck by lightning!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

481. “Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.’ ‘Is it indeed?’ laughed Gildor. ‘Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

482. “There were many paths that led up into those mountains, and many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends; and most of the passes were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. The dwarves and the hobbit, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

483. “There is no ship now that can bear me hence.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

484. “That was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

485. “Don’t put a lump of rock under my elbow again!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

486. “Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

487. “O! Where are you going With beards all a-wagging? No knowing, no knowing What brings Mister Baggins, And Balin and Dwalin down into the valley in June ha! ha!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

488. “Still she did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

489. “This is the Arkenstone of Thrain,” said Bilbo, “the Heart of the Mountain; and it is also the heart of Thorin.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

490. “Farewell, good thief,” he said. “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.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

491. “Mourn not overmuch! Mighty was the fallen, meet was his ending. When his mound is raised, women then shall weep. War now calls us!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

492. “The dragon is coming or I am a fool!” he cried. “Cut the bridges! To arms! To arms!” Then warning trumpets were suddenly sounded, and echoed along the rocky shores. The cheering stopped and the joy was turned to dread.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

493. “Don’t tell us about dreams – dream dinners aren’t any good and we can’t share them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

494. “Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

495. “Let him go, you filth! Let him go! You will not touch him again!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

496. “However it may prove, one must tread the path that need chooses!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

497. “Fire, fear, foes! Awake!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

498. “The dawn is brief and the day full often belies its promise.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

499. “And it is not always good to be healed in body. Nor is it always evil to die in battle, even in bitter pain. Were I permitted, in this dark hour I would choose the latter.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

500. “The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien