Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2024 Update)
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251. “It gives me great pleasure, a good name. I always in writing start with a name. Give me a name and it produces a story, not the other way about normally.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

252. “Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

253. “We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

254. “All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

255. “Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

256. “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

257. “And its object is Art not power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

258. “The whole thing is quite hopeless, so it’s no good worrying about tomorrow. It probably won’t come.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

259. “Farewell! I go to find the Sun!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

260. “Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s rising I came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

261. “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

262. “I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

263. “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

264. “Farewell we call to hearth and hall! Though wind may blow and rain may fall. We must away ere the break of day. Far over wood and mountain tall.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

265. “And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go. It was an evil fate.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

266. “A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

267. “For so sworn good or evil an oath may not be broken and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world’s end.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

268. “History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

269. “Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it will be a marvel!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

270. “Adventures only make you late for dinner.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

271. “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

272. “Faithful heart may have froward tongue.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

273. “Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

274. “It is the way of my people to use light words at such times and say less than they mean. We fear to say too much. It robs us of the right words when a jest is out of place.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

275. “Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

276. “It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

277. “And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

278. “I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and people who will see a world that I shall never know. But all the while I sit and think of times there were before, I listen for returning feet and voices at the door.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

279. “I felt a curious thrill, as if something had stirred in me, half wakened from sleep. There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words, if I could grasp it, far beyond ancient English.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

280. “We must do without hope.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

281. “Not all that have fallen are vanquished.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

282. “Things are drawing towards the end now, unless I am mistaken. There is an unpleasant time just in front of you; but keep your heart up!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

283. “Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate; they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

284. “When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold, Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold; When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

285. “For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

286. “Don’t leave me here alone! It’s your Sam calling. Don’t go where I can’t follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

288. “Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

289. “The sky was clear and the stars were growing bright. ‘It’s going to be a fine night,’ he said aloud. ‘That’s good for a beginning. I feel like walking.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

290. “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

291. “Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart; and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West, and cometh from the Sea.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

292. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

294. “We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

295. “His rage passes description – the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

296. “But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

297. “Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

298. “Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go To heal my heart and drown my woe Rain may fall, and wind may blow And many miles be still to go But under a tall tree will I lie And let the clouds go sailing by.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

299. “Fear nothing! Have peace until the morning! Heed no nightly noises!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

300. “But there, my friends, songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way: and sometimes they are withered untimely.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien