Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “All that is gold does not glitter.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

52. “I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

53. “Short cuts make long delays.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

54. “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.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

55. “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

56. “The stars are far brighter Than gems without measure, The moon is far whiter Than silver in treasure; The fire is more shining On hearth in the gloaming Than gold won by mining, So why go a-roaming? O! Tra-la-la-lally Come back to the Valley.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

57. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

58. “The road goes ever on and on.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

59. “You aren’t nearly through this adventure yet.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

60. “What does your heart tell you?”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

61. “Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

62. “Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. Forth, Eorlingas!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

63. “So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

64. “Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand- – that and such hope as I bring.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

65. “And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

66. “For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

67. “I wisely started with a map.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

68. “Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

69. “Speak politely to an enraged dragon.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

70. “And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

71. “His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

72. “It needs but one foe to breed a war, and those who have not swords can still die upon them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

73. “For you do not yet know the strengths of your hearts, and you cannot foresee what each may meet on the road.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

74. “Though here at journey’s end I lie In darkness buried deep, Beyond all towers strong and high, Beyond all mountains steep, Above all shadows rides the Sun And Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, Nor bid the Stars farewell.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

75. “Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

76. “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

77. “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

78. “He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

79. “A new day will come and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

80. “Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

81. “It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

82. “Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

83. “The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation – This story begins and ends in joy.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

84. “There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

85. “It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

86. “I don’t want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can’t escape is even worse.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

88. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

89. “Where there are so many, all speech becomes a debate without end. But two together may perhaps find wisdom.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

90. “All’s well that ends better.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

91. “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

92. “Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

93. “If you sit on the doorstep long enough, I daresay you will think of something.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

94. “My dear Frodo!’ exclaimed Gandalf. ‘Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

95. “It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

96. “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

97. “Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

98. “Valour needs first strength, then a weapon.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

99. “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.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

100. “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien