Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “Farewell! O Gandalf! May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

402. “Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

403. “Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added. And thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

404. “Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow, By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us! Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

405. “Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

406. “You are a very fine person, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

407. “Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

408. “It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

409. “This only was wanting. Now comes the night.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

410. “In those days the Great Enemy, of whom Sauron of Mordor was but a servant, dwelt in Angband in the North, and the Elves of the West coming back to Middle-earth made war upon him to regain the Silmarils which he had stolen; and the fathers of Men aided the Elves.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

411. “The King’s grace is greater than you know, and the law is become less stern than aforetime; or else no choice would be given you but to abide here to your life’s end.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

412. “Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more bitterness and shame for a man’s heart than to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

413. “I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

414. “Gandalf thought of most things; and though he could not do everything, he could do a great deal for friends in a tight corner.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

415. “Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

416. “O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! We still remember, we who dwell In this far land beneath the trees. Thy starlight on the Western Seas.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

417. “You ought not to be rude to an eagle, when you are only the size of a hobbit, and are up in hid eyrie at night!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

418. “Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

419. “For of us is required a blind trust, and a hope without assurance, knowing not what lies before us in a little while.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

420. “Then shouldering their burdens, they set off, seeking a path that would bring them over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, and down into the Land of Shadow.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

421. “Oh, that won’t do!’ said Bilbo. ‘Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?’ ‘It will do well, if it ever comes to that,’ said Frodo. ‘Ah!’ said Sam. ‘And where will they live? That’s what I often wonder.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

422. “Soft as butter they can be, and yet sometimes as tough as old tree-roots.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

423. “The fate of Men after death, maybe, is not in the hands of the Valar, nor was all foretold in the Music of the Ainur.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

424. “Then he missed the cup! Thieves! Fire! Murder! Such a thing had not happened since first he came to the Mountain! 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

425. “Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

426. “If this nice friendliness would spread out in Mordor, half our trouble would be over.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

427. “Of the twelve companions of Thorin, ten remained. Fili and Kili had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother’s elder brother.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

428. “The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally small reach of their imagination.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

429. “A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

430. “Yet seldom do they fail of their seed, And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for. The deeds of Men will outlast us.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

432. “A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

433. “Don’t tell us about dreams – dream dinners aren’t any good and we can’t share them.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

434. “It’s the deep breath before the plunge.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

435. “There was a willow hanging over the mill-pool and I learned to climb it. It belonged to a butcher on the Stratford Road, I think. One day they cut it down. They didn’t do anything with it: the log just lay there. I never forgot that.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

436. “A few melancholy birds were pipping and wailing, until the round red sun sank slowly into the western shadows; then an empty silence fell.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

437. “We are met together in the house of our friend and fellow conspirator, this most excellent and audacious hobbit – may the hair on his toes never fall out! all praise to his wine and ale! –.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

438. “I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

439. “And the Ring is so heavy, Sam. I begin to see it in my mind all the time, like a great wheel of fire.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

440. “Here you find us sitting on a field of victory, amid the plunder of armies, and you wonder how we came by a few well-earned comforts!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

441. “You may not like my burglar, but please don’t damage him.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

442. “Wraiths! Wraiths on wings!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

443. “Help means ruin and saving means slaying.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

444. “We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

445. “That’s the only place in all the lands we’ve ever heard of that we don’t want to see any closer; and that’s the one place we’re trying to get to! And that’s just where we can’t get, nohow.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

446. “There was a fire in the wide hearth before them, and it was burning with a sweet smell, as if it were built of apple-wood.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

447. “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

448. “They were frightfully angry. Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

449. “I am Goldberry, daughter of the River.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

450. “There are other men, and other lives, and time still to be.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien