Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “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

302. “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

303. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

305. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— 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. “Snow’s all right on a fine morning, but I like to be in bed when it’s falling.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

310. “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

311. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

313. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

316. “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

317. “My Precious, my Precious.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

318. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

320. “The doom lies in yourself, not in your name.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

322. “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

323. “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

324. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

326. “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

327. “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

328. “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

329. “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

330. “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

331. “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

332. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

334. “You cannot pass!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

339. “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

340. “Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

342. “When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

343. “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

344. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

346. “He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien