Book Quotes by J.R.R. Tolkien

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king.

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

It is not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points.

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.

While there's life there's hope.

Farewell, o Gandalf! May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!

Bilbo: 'So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.'

Short cuts make for long delays.

Thorin: 'There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.'

I am personally immensely amused by hobbits as such, and can contemplate them eating and making their rather fatuous remarks indefinitely; but I find that is not the case with even my most devoted ‘fans’.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the walls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they have long known.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

[Riddle for Gollum]
Bilbo Baggins: 'What have I got in my pocket?'

'...Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?'
'A man may do both,' said Aragorn. 'For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!'

I have looked the last upon that which was fairest', he said to Legolas his companion. 'Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless be it her gift

Hobbits really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you.

And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.

You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to.