Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2023 Update)
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301. “A traitor may betray himself and do good he does not intend.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

302. “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

303. “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

304. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

307. “The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

309. “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

310. “Bilbo saw that the moment had come when he must do something.”

— 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. “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

313. “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

314. “Many are the strange chances of the world,? said Mithrandir, ’and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

315. “He knew that all the hazards and perils were now drawing together to a point: the next day would be a day of doom, the day of final effort or disaster, the last gasp.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

316. “You cannot pass!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

317. “Then Elrond and Galadriel rode on; for the Third Age was over and the Days of the Rings were passed and an end was come of the story and song of those times.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

318. “And he sang to them, now in the Elven tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

319. “Much evil must befall a country before it ever really forgets the Elves, if once they lived there.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

320. “No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

322. “There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

323. “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

324. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

327. “This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

328. “I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

331. “And what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation?”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

332. “My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

333. “We are plain quiet folk, and I have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, and uncomfortable things.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

337. “My Precious, my Precious.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

338. “Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary, and dungeons for the overbold.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

339. “But the enemy has the move, and he is about to open his full game. And pawns are as likely to see as much of it as any. Sharpen your blade!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

340. “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

341. “The world was fair, the mountains tall In Elder Days before the fall...”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

342. “Then Frodo came forward and took the crown from Faramir and bore it to Gandalf; and Aragorn knelt, and Gandalf set the White Crown upon his head and said: Now come the days of the King, and may they be blessed while the thrones of the Valar endure!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

343. “Lazy Lob and crazy Cob are weaving webs to wind me. I am far more sweet than other meat, but still they cannot find me! Here am I, naughty little fly; you are fat and lazy. You cannot trap me, though you try, in your cobwebs crazy.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

344. “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

345. “And he smote the Balrog upon the mountainside.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

346. “O! Tril-lil-lil-lolly the valley is jolly, ha! ha! -Elves of Rivendell.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

347. “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

348. “And there was Frodo, pale and worn, and yet himself again; and in his eyes there was peace now, neither strain of will, nor madness, nor any fear. His burden was taken away.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

349. “Orcs, and talking trees, and leagues of grass, and galloping riders, and glittering caves, and white towers and golden halls, and battles, and tall ships sailing, all these passed before Sam’s mind.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

350. “We don’t want any adventures here! You might try over the Hill or Across the Water.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien