Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “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

302. “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

303. “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

304. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

307. “The misty morning crawleth grey from dusk to the reluctant day.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

308. “Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

309. “There cannot be any ‘story’ without a fall – all stories are ultimately about the fall – at least not for human minds as we know them and have them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

310. “Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug the Chiefest and greatest of Calamities.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

311. “And it is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

312. “With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

313. “Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

314. “I’m going on an adventure.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

315. “On their deathbed men will speak true, they say.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

316. “I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

317. “Many evil things there are that your strong walls and bright swords do not stay.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Featured in: Strong Quotes

318. “For behold! the storm comes, and now all friends should gather together, lest each singly be destroyed.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

319. “I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, and then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a lot of relatives prying around, and a string of confounded visitors hanging on the bell. I might find somewhere where I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

320. “Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

321. “Hobbits give presents to other people on their own birthdays. Not very expensive ones, as a rule, and not so lavishly as on this occasion; but it was not a bad system.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

322. “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

323. “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

324. “It is written in my life-blood, such that it is, thick or thin; and I can no other.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

325. “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

326. “Go back?” he thought. “No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

327. “The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

328. “Go back to the abyss! Fall into nothingness that awaits you and your master!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

329. “Evidently we look so much alike that your desire to make an incurable dent in my hat must be excused.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

330. “There was a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm called Smaug.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

331. “The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

332. “Venice seemed incredibly lovely, elvishly lovely – to me like a dream of Old Gondor, or Pelargir of the Numenorean Ships, before the return of the Shadow.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

333. “But good luck to you – today and every day!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

334. “He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

335. “And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

336. “My Precious, my Precious.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

337. “Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

338. “Your lullaby would waken a drunken goblin!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

339. “Seek for the Sword that was broken In Imladris it dwells; There shall be counsels taken Stronger than Morgul-spells. There shall be shown a token That Doom is near at hand, For Isuldur’s Bane shall waken, And the halfling forth shall stand.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

340. “The Dark Lord has Nine. But we have One, mightier than they: the White Rider. He has passed through the fire and the abyss, and they shall fear him. We will go where he leads.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

341. “A traitor may betray himself and do good he does not intend.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

342. “For a while they stood there, like men on the edge of a sleep where nightmare lurks, holding it off, though they know that they can only come to morning through the shadows.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

343. “You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

344. “I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament...”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

345. “But it is not for thy valour only that I send thee, but to bring into the world a hope beyond thy sight, and a light that shall pierce the darkness.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

346. “American English is essentially English after having been wiped off with a dirty sponge.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

347. “The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

348. “I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.’ ‘What do you fear, lady?’ he asked. ‘A cage,’ she said. ‘To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

349. “Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you’ve done since you left home.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

350. “The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow- an Elf!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien