Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “He was as noble and fair in face as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Featured in: Strong Quotes

202. “May the hair on your toes never fall out!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

203. “I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

204. “Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

205. “I would have followed you. My brother. My captain. My king.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

206. “Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

207. “The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

208. “Do you remember when we first met? I thought I had wandered into a dream.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

209. “And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

210. “A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

211. “There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. 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.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

212. “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.? I should think so – in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

213. “False hopes are more dangerous than fears.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

214. “For victory is victory, however small, nor is its worth only from what follows from it.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

215. “His face was sad and stern because of the doom that was laid on him, and yet hope dwelt ever in the depths of his heart, from which mirth would arise at times like a spring from a rock.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

216. “Memory is not what the heart desires.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

217. “If you’re referring to the incident with the Dragon, I was barely involved. All I did was give your uncle a little nudge out of the door.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

218. “He told them tales of bees and flowers, the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest, about the evil things and the good things, things friendly and things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets hidden under brambles.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

219. “Who knows? Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

220. “Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.’ ‘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. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black. The Enemy is fast becoming very strong.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

221. “Far over misty mountains cold To dungeons deep and caverns old We must away, ere break of day, To find our long-forgotten gold.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

222. “For it is said in old lore, ‘The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.’ And so the rightful king could ever be known.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

223. “My ‘Sam Gamgee’ is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

224. “The way is shut. Then they halted and looked at him and saw that he lived still; but he did not look at them. The way is shut, his voice said again. 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

225. “For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomable at the foundations of the Earth.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

226. “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

227. “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish, as my old gaffer used to say.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

228. “I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

229. “I am in fact, a hobbit in all but size.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

230. “Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

231. “If we all got angry together something might be done.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

232. “Perhaps it is better not to tell what you wish. if you cannot have it.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

233. “He did not falter, as long as there was a path that led toward his goal.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

234. “Courage is found in unlikely places,’ said Gildor. ‘Be of good hope!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

235. “There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is coming.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

236. “The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

237. “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

238. “This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

239. “To crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

240. “Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

241. “No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

242. “Their ‘magic’ is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

243. “A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one’s age group. It comes from reading books above one.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

244. “Without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

245. “Is everything sad going to come untrue?”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

246. “And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

247. “The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Featured in: Strong Quotes

248. “But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Featured in: Real Quotes

249. “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Featured in: Book Quotes

250. “We are never late. We arrive precisely when we mean to.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien