Top 500 J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “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

402. “For he was a gentle heart and a great king and kept his oaths; and he rose out of the shadows to a last fair morning.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

403. “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

404. “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

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. “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

407. “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

408. “And yet, Eomer, I say to you that she loves you more truly than me, for you she loves and knows; but in me she loves only a shadow and a thought: a hope of glory and great deeds, and lands far from the fields of Rohan. – Aragorn to Eomer, of Eowyn.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

409. “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

410. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

412. “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

413. “Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

414. “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

415. “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

416. “Thus came Aragorn son of Arathorn, Elessar, Isildur’s heir, out of the Paths of the Dead, borne upon a wind from the sea to the kingdom of Gondor.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

418. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

420. “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

421. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— 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. “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

426. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

428. “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

429. “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

430. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

433. “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

434. “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

435. “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

436. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

438. “Wraiths! Wraiths on wings!”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

439. “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

440. “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

441. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

443. “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

444. “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

445. “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

446. “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

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien

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

— J. R. R. Tolkien