Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2023 Update)
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401. “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

402. “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

403. “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

404. “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

405. “Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril – to Mordor. We must send the Ring to the Fire.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

408. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

410. “Wraiths! Wraiths on wings!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

411. “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

412. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

414. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

416. “As she stood before Aragorn she paused suddenly and looked upon him, and her eyes were shining. And he looked down upon her fair face and smiled; but as he took the cup, his hand met hers, and he knew that she trembled at the touch.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

417. “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

418. “I give you this toast: To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

419. “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

420. “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

421. “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

422. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

424. “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

425. “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

426. “Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean-limbed; their gray coats glistened, their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes were braided on their proud necks.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

427. “Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

428. “And if Sam considered himself lucky, Frodo knew he was more lucky himself; for there was not a hobbit in the Shire that was looked after with such care.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

429. “That’s done it! Now I’ve rung the front-door bell!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

430. “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

431. “And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

432. “A year shall I endure for every day that passes until you return.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

434. “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

435. “I fear that in my eagerness to persuade you, I lost patience. And indeed I regret it.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

436. “You are a set of deceitful scoundrels! But bless you! I give in. I will take Gildor’s advice. If the danger were not so dark, I should dance for joy. Even so, I cannot help feeling happy; happier than I have felt for a long time.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

437. “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

438. “The washing-up was so dismally real that Bilbo was forced to believe the party of the night before had not been part of his bad dreams, as he had rather hoped.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

439. “And then alas! I let the matter reset, watching and waiting only, as we have too often done.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

440. “At last the time came for him to say good-bye to his friends. “Farewell, Balin!” he said; “and farewell, Dwalin; and farewell Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur! May your beards never grow thin!” And turning towards the Mountain he added: “Farewell Thorin Oakenshield! And Fili and Kili! May your memory never fade!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

441. “Rover did not know in the least where the moon’s path led to, and at present he was much too frightened and excited to ask, and anyway he was beginning to get used to extraordinary things happening to him.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

442. “A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one’s age group. It comes from reading books above one.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

443. “That was Thorin’s style. He was an important dwarf. If he had been allowed, he would probably have gone on like this until he was out of breath, without telling anyone there anything that was not known already. But he was rudely interrupted.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

444. “Hail the victorious dead!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

445. “Lurking by a stagnant mere, peering in the water as the dark eve fell, I caught him, Gollum. He was covered with green slime. He will never love me, I fear; for he bit me, and I was not gentle. Nothing more did I ever get from his mouth than the marks of his teeth.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

446. “It is plain that we were meant to go together.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

447. “I will not give you counsel, saying do this, or do that. For not in doing or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part also what shall be.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

448. “He is not half through yet, and to what he will come in the end not even Elrond can foretell. Not to evil, I think. He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

449. “You’re a booby,” said William. “Booby yerself!” said Tom.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

450. “There was some murmuring, but also some grins on the faces of the men looking on: the sight of their Captain sitting on the ground and eye to eye with a young hobbit, legs well apart, bristling with wrath, was one beyond their experience.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien