TheOneRing.netRolozo Tolkien
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This page contains visitors' and some of my own favorite quotations from J.R.R. Tolkien's books and other sources. Most were drawn from visitors' submissions here, newsgroup discussions, email signatures I have seen, and web pages.
Then suddenly out of the gloom came a sharp hiss. 'What has it got in its pocketses?'
-Gollum


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.
-Gandalf


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.
-Bilbo Baggins


This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and the counsels of the Great.
-Elrond


They lie in all the pools, pale faces, deep deep under the dark water. I saw them: grim faces and evil, and noble faces and sad. Many faces proud and fair, and weeds in their silver hair. But all foul, all rotting, all dead. A fell light is in them.
-Frodo


Much must be risked in war, said Denethor. Cair Andros is manned, and no more can be sent so far. Yet I will not yield the River and the Pelennor unfought, not if there is a captain here who has still the courage to do his lord's will.

Then all were silent, but at length Faramir said: I do not oppose your will, sire. Since you are robbed of Boromir, I will go, and do what I can in his stead - if you command it.

I do so, said Denethor.

Then farewell! said Faramir. But if I should return, think better of me!

That depends on the manner of your return! said Denethor.
-The Return of the King


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.
-The Return of the King


... But our back is to legends and we are coming home. I suppose this is the first taste of it.

There is a long road yet, said Gandalf.

But it is the last road, said Bilbo.
-The Hobbit


It is time to get up. It is half past four and very foggy.
-Meriadoc Brandybuck


They are coming! cried Legolas.

We cannot get out, said Gimli.
-The Fellowship of the Ring


You cannot pass! I am servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the shadow! You cannot pass!
-Gandalf


Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-Earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.
-Gandalf


But Arwen went forth from the house, and the light of her eyes was quenched, and it seemed to her people that she had become cold and grey as nightfall in winter without a star. Then she said farewell to Eldarion, and to her daughters, and to all whom she loved; and she went out from the city of Minas Tirith and passed away to the land of Lorien, and dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came. Galadriel had passed away and Celeborn also was gone, and the land was silent.

There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterely forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no longer east of the sea.
-J.R.R. Tolkien, Appendix A, Here follows a part of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen


Gibbets and Crows! Dotard! What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll around on the floor with their dogs!
-Saruman


Welcome, my lords, to Isengard. We are the doorwardens.
-Meriadoc Brandybuck of Buckland


So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of the Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dunedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.
-The Return of the King


He who breaks a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.
-Gandalf


Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
-The Return of the King


We are sent from Dain son of Nain, they said when questioned. We are hastening to our kinsmen in the Mountain, since we learn that the kingdom of old is renewed. But who are you that sit in the plain as foes before defended walls? This, of course, in the polite and rather old-fashioned language of such occasions, meant simply: You have no business here. We are going on, so make way or we shall fight you!
-The Hobbit


Farewell, O twice beloved! A Turin Turambar turun ambartanen: master of doom by doom mastered! O happy to be dead!
-Nienor Niniel


And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
-Galadriel


Goodbye, master, my dear! Forgive your Sam. He'll come back to this spot when the job's done - if he manages it. And then he'll not leave you again. Rest you quiet till I come; and may no foul creature come anigh you! And if the Lady could hear me and give me one wish, I would wish to come back and find you again. Good bye!
-Sam


Therefore Morgoth came, climbing slowly from his subterranean throne, and the rumour of his feet was like thunder underground. And he issued forth clad in black armour; and he stood before the king like a tower, iron-crowned and his vast shield, sable unblazoned, cast a shadow over him like a storm cloud. But Fingolfin gleamed beneath it like a star;for his mail was overlaid with silver, and his blue shield was set with crystals; and he drew his sword Ringil, and it glittered like ice, cold and gray and deadly.
-The Lost Road and Other Writings book II


I am Gandalf, said the wizard.

Never heard of him, growled the man.
-J.R.R. Tolkien, when Gandalf and Bilbo meet Beorn for the first time


Riders! cried Aragorn, springing to his feet. Many riders on swift steeds are coming towards us!

Yes, said Legolas, there are one hundred and five. Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is very tall.

Aragorn smiled. Keen are the eyes of the Elves, he said.
-The Two Towers


In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
-The Hobbit


Wind is changing!
-Ghan-buri-ghan


My friends, you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours... who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?
-Gandalf


Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can. The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears.
-Boromir


my love is given to the Morning. And my heart forebodes that soon it will pass away for ever.
-Gimli


What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
-Gandalf


Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
-Gildor Inglorion


Thus it was in Gondolin; and amid all the bliss of that realm, while its glory lasted, a dark seed of evil was sown.
-The Silmarillion


... but the delight and pride of Aule is in the deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work.
-The Silmarillion


But suddenly Gollum remembered thieving from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck --- Eggses!
-The Hobbit


Last of all Hurin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Hurin cried Aure entuluva! Day shall come again! Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive...
-The Silmarillion


She should not die, so young and beautiful. At least, she should not die alone.
-Merry, on the Pelennor Fields


Well, here is the strangest riddle that we have yet found! A bound prisoner escapes both from the Orcs and from the surrounding horsemen. He then stops, while still in the open, and cuts his bonds with an orc-knife. But how and why? For if his legs were tied, how did he walk? And if his arms were tied, how did he use the knife? And if neither were tied, why did he cut the cords at all? Being pleased with his skill, he then sat down and quietly ate some waybread! That at least is enough to show that he was a hobbit, without the mallorn-leaf. After that, I suppose, he turned his arms into wings and flew away singing into the trees. It should be easy to find him: we only need wings ourselves!
-Legolas


I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself.
-Aragorn


But the dawn is brief and the day full often belies its promise.
-The Silmarillion, Of Men


Gandalf! I said at last, but my voice was only a whisper. Did he say: Hullo, Pippin! This is a pleasant surprise!? No, indeed! He said: Get up, you tom-fool of a Took! Where, in the name of wonder, in all this ruin is Treebeard? I want him. Quick!
-Pippin


Don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer. Tell me, who are you alone, yourself and nameless? But you are young and I am old. Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
-Tom Bombadil


Dragons steal gold and jewels, you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them; and they guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically for ever, unless they are killed), and never enjoy a brass ring of it.
-Thorin Oakenshield


Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
-Gimli


It's wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
-Elrond


It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
-Frodo


...And now leave me in peace for a bit! I don't want to answer a string of questions while I'm eating. I want to think!

Good Heavens! said Pippin. At breakfast?
-The Fellowship of the Ring, A Shortcut to Mushrooms


She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beatiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

I pass the test, she said. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.
-The Fellowship of the Ring


For though I do not ask for aid, we need it.
-Boromir


The one had leaves of dark green that beneath were as shining silver, and from each of his countless flowers a dew of silver light was ever falling, and the earth beneath was dappled with the shadows of his fluttering leaves.
-The Silmarillion


Look, my friends! Here's a pretty hobbit skin to wrap an elven princeling in.
-Aragorn


Keen, heart-piercing was her song as the song of the lark that rises from the gates of night and pours its voice among the dying stars, seeing the sun behind the walls of the world; and the song of Luthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed.
-The Silmarillion


The words of this wizard stand on their head.
-Gimli


Waste of a good apple.
-Sam


A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long had it been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the west, and wise men that watched the stars. But Saruman had slowly it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived - for all those arts and subtle devices for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which he fondly imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dur, The Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding it's time, secure in its pride and it's immeasurable strength.
-The Two Towers


I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. If by life, or death, I can save you I will.
-Aragorn


Well, well, bless my beard! said Gandalf. Sam Gamgee is it? Now what may you be doing?

Lor bless you, Mr. Gandalf, Sir! said Sam. Nothing! Leastways I was just trimming the grass-border under the window, if you follow me. He picked up his shears and exhibited them as evidence.

I don't, said Gandalf grimly. It is some time since I last heard the sound of your shears. How long have you been eavesdropping?

Eavesdropping, Sir? I don't follow you, begging your pardon. There ain't no eaves at Bag End, and thats a fact.
-The Fellowship of the Ring


Come not between the nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bare thee away to the Houses of Lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured and thy shriviled mind be left naked to the lidless eye.
-The Lord of the Nazgul


Hullo Pippin! he said. So you've come on this little expedition, too? Where do we get bed and breakfast?
-Merry


The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken a vow of poverty, renounced control, and take delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless.
-J.R.R. Tolkien; Letters, pp178; on Tom Bombadil


Dangerous! cried Gandalf. And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.
-Gandalf


It needs more to make a king than a piece of elvish glass, or a rabble such as this.
-the Mouth of Sauron


Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Anduril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. Elendil! he cried. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, Dunadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!
-The Two Towers


If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might melt a path for you, said Legolas. The storm had troubled him little, and he alone in the company remained still light of heart.

If elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun and save us, answered Gandalf. But I must have something to work on. I cannot burn snow.
-The Fellowship of the Ring


Hill. Yes, that was it. But it is a hasty word for a thing that has stood here ever since this part of the world was shaped.
-Treebeard


What do they live on when they can't get hobbit?
-Sam


Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some far corner of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed reckoning nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.

And as if in answer there came from far awary another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin's side they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North, wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.
-The Return of the King


It's sunlight and bright day, right enough. I thought that Elves were all for moon and stars: but this is more elvish than anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as if I was inside a song, if you take my meaning.
-Sam


I am glad you are here with me, Sam. Here at the end of all things, Sam.
-Frodo, on Mount Doom


With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard's knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered, and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. Fly you fools! he cried, and was gone.
-The Fellowship of the Ring


He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.
-Elrond


Feanor was the mightiest in skill of word and of hand, more learned than his brothers; his spirit burned as a flame. Fingolfin was the strongest, the most steadfast, and the most valiant. Finarfin was the fairest, and the most wise of heart...
-The Silmarillion


We will come, said Imrahil; and they parted with courteous words.

That is a fair lord and a great captain of men, said Legolas. If Gondor has such men still in these days of fading, great must have been its glory in the days of its rising.

And doubtless the good stone-work is the older and was wrought in the first building, said Gimli. 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.

Yet seldom do they fail of their seed, said Legolas. 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, Gimli.

And yet come to naught in the end but might-have-beens, I guess, said the Dwarf.

To that the Elves know not the answer, said Legolas.
-The Return of the King


...Fire is our friend in the wilderness.

Maybe, muttered Sam. It is also as good a way of saying here we are as I can think of, bar shouting.
-The Fellowship of the Ring, A Knife in the Dark


...for if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomed at the foundations of the Earth.
-The Silmarillion


I am going to have a long talk with Tom Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling.
-Gandalf


Smeagol won't grub for roots and carrotses and - taters. What's taters, precious, eh, what's taters?
-Gollum


The Nazgul they were; the Ringwraiths, the Enemy's most terribly servants; darkness went with them and they cried with the voices of death.
-The Silmarillion


A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong.
-Gandalf


Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end.
-Legolas


But for a long time Faramir walked alone in the garden, and now his glance strayed rather to the house than to the eastward walls.
-The Return of the King


Sleep again and do not be afraid! For you are not going like Frodo to Mordor, but to Minas Tirith, and there you will be as safe as anywhere these days. If Gondor falls, or the Ring is taken, then the Shire will be no refuge.
-Gandalf


Confusticate and bebother these dwarves...
-Bilbo Baggins


Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them, and ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue.
-Mandos, The Silmarillion, Of the Flight of the Noldor


None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!
-Feanor


Not this way, master! There is another way. O yes indeed there is. Another way, darker, more difficult to find, more secret. But Smeagol knows it. Let Smeagol show you!
-Gollum


Behold, I am not Gandalf the Grey, whom you betrayed. I am Gandalf the White, who has returned from death. You have no colour now, and I cast you from the order and from the Council.
-Gandalf


These staves he spoke, yet he laughed as he said them. For once more lust of battle was on him; and he was still unscathed, and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people.
-J.R.R. Tolkien, on Eomer, King of the Mark


I will take the ring, though I do not know the way.
-Frodo


What is it? growled Sam, misenterpreting the signs. What is the need to sniff? The stink nearly knocks me down with my nose hed. You stink, and master stinks; the whole place stinks.

Yes, yes and Sam stinks! answered Gollum.
-The Two Towers


No dwarf could be unmoved by such loveliness. None of Durin's race would mine those caves for stones or ore, not if diamonds and gold could be got there. Do you cut down groves of blossoming trees in the springtime for firewood? We would tend these glades of flowering stone, not quarry them. With cautious skill, tap by tap - a small chip of rock and no more, perhaps, in a whole anxious day - so we could work, and as the years went by, we should open up new ways, and display far chambers that are still dark, glimpsed only as a void beyond fissures in the rock. And lights, Legolas! We should make lights, such lamps as once shone in Khazad-dum; and when we wished we would drive away the night that has lain there since the hills were made; and when we desired rest, we would let the night return.
-Gimli


There lies the Mirrormere, deep Kheled-zaram! said Gimli sadly. I remember that he said: May you have joy of the sight! But we cannot linger there. Now long shall I journey ere I have joy again. It is I that must hasten away, and he that must remain.
-Gimli


The treacherous are ever distrustful.
-Gandalf


Then Fingolfin beheld (as it seemed to him) the utter ruin of the Noldor, and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses; and filled with wrath and despair he mounted Rochallor his great horse and rode forth alone, and none might restrain him. He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking Orome himself was come; for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband's gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came.
-The Silmarillion


They turned and ran. At that moment some dozen Orcs that had lain motionless among the slain leaped to their feet, and came silently and swiftly behind. Two flung themselves to the ground at Eomer's heels, tripped him, and in a moment they were on top of him. But a small dark figure that none had observed sprang out of the shadows and gave a hoarse shout: Baruk Khazàd! Khazàd ai-menu! An axe swung and swept back. Two Orcs fell headless. The rest fled.
-The Two Towers


Eowyn, Eowyn, White Lady of Rohan, in this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure! And he stooped and kissed her brow. And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air. And the Shadow departed, and the Sun was unveiled, and the light leapt forth...
-The Return of the King


Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?
-Gollum


Radagast the Brown! Radagast the Bird-tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit to play the part I set him. For you have come, and that was the purpose of my message. And here you shall stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from your journeys. For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman the Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!
-Saruman


It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden, answered Eowyn. And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies? And it is not always good to be healed in body. Nor is it always evil to die in battle, even in bitter pain. Were I permitted, in this dark hour I would choose the latter.
-The Return of the King


Where is the other one? The cross rude hobbit?
-Smeagol


These we will take!
-Gandalf, at the Black Gate


I had forgotten that, said Eomer. It is hard to be sure of anything amoung so many marvels. The world is all grown strange. Elf and Dwarf in company walk in our daily fields; and folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?

As he has ever judged, said Aragorn. Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing amoung Elves and Dwarves and another amoung Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.
-The Two Towers


Handsome is as handsome does.
-Samwise Gamgee


Loud and clear it sounds in the valleys of the hills. Then let the foes of Gondor flee!
-Boromir


Thief! Thief! Baggins! We hates it! We hates it forever!
-Gollum


All's well as ends Better!
-Gaffer Gamgee


Hail, Gurtholfin, wand of death, for thou art all men's bane and all men's lives fain wouldst thou drink, knowing no lord or faith save the hand that wields thee if it be strong. Thee only have I now - slay me therefore and be swift, for life is a curse, and all my days are creeping foul, and all my deeds are vile and all I love is dead. And Gurtholfin said: That will I gladly do, for blood is blood, and perchance thine is not less sweet than many a one's that thou hast given me ere now; and Turambar cast himself then upon the point of Gurtholfin, and the dark blade took his life.
-The Silmarillion


Well done! Mr. Baggins! he said, clapping Bilbo on the back. There is always more to you than anyone expects!
-Gandalf


These are indeed strange days. Dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass.
-Eomer


O great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!
-Sam


With their whips of flame they smote asunder the webs of Ungoliant, and she quailed, and turned to fight, belching black vapours to cover her; and fleeing from the north she went down into Beleriand, and dwelt beneath Ered Gorgoroth, in that dark valley that was after called Nan Durgotheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death, becuase of the horror she bred there. For other foul creatures of spider form had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband, and she mated with them, and devoured them; and even after Ungoliant herself departed, and went whither she would into the forgotten south of the world, her offspring abode there and wove their hideous webs. Of the fate of Ungoliant, no tale tells. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.
-The Silmarillion


Deserves it! I daresay he does. 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. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least.
-Gandalf


To me! To me! Up Eorlingas, fear no darkness!
-King Theoden


With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter!
-Aragorn


There is food in the wild, said Strider, berry, root, and herb; and I have some skill as a hunter at need. You need not be afraid of starving before winter comes. But gathering and catching food is long and weary work, and we need haste. So tighten your belts, and think with hope of the tables of Elrond's house!
-Strider


Its name was Cirith Ungol, a name of dreadful rumour. Aragorn could perhaps have told them that name and its significance; Gandalf would have warned them. But they were alone, and Aragorn was far away, and Gandalf stood amid the ruin of Isengard and strove with Saruman, delayed by treason. Yet even as he spoke his last words to Saruman, and the palantir crashed in fire upon the steps of Orthanc, his thought was ever upon Frodo and Samwise, over the long leagues his mind sought for them in hope and pity.
-The Two Towers


Sleep! I feel the need of it. Yet my axe is restless in my hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!
-Gimli


Thag you very buch.
-Bilbo Baggins


But the night will be too short. I have come back here, for I must have a little peace, alone. You should sleep, in a bed while you still may. At the sunrise I shall take you to the Lord Denethor again. No, when the summons comes, not at sunrise. The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn.
-Gandalf


Thou fool, no living man may hinder me!
-The witch king of Angmar


But no living man am I.
-Eowyn


Frodo, Mr. Frodo! Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling. Don't go where I can't follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo! O wake up, Frodo, me dear, me dear. Wake up!
-Samwise Gamgee


The wise speak only of what they know, Grima son of Galmod. A witless worm have you become. Therefore be silent, and keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls.
-Gandalf


If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
-The Silmarillion


We have sworn, and not lightly. This oath we will keep. We are threatened with many evils, and treason not least; but one thing is not said: that we shall suffer from cowardice, from cravens or the fear of cravens. Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.
-Feanor


No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it even with my waking eyes, and all else fades.
-Frodo


For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them. 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 into the City.
-The Return of the King


Of course, said Gandalf. And why should not they prove true? Surely you do not disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? 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!
-Gandalf


And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dur was shaken, and the Tower trembeled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare. Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom now hung.

From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overwhelming force upon the Mountain.
-The Return of the King


He is a great enough magician to tap our most common nightmares, daydreams and twilight fancies...Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams...
-Peter S. Beagle, on J.R.R. Tolkien (1973)


The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Ring and The Hobbit, and those who are going to read them.
-Sunday Times


A grim, tragic, brooding and beautiful book, shot through with heroism and hope...its power is almost that of mysticism.
-Toronto Globe & Mail


How, given little over half a century of work, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?
-The Guardian


I am in fact a Hobbit, in all but size.
-J.R.R. Tolkien


I have an unsatisfied desire to shoot well with a bow.
-J.R.R. Tolkien


Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works...
-J.R.R. Tolkien


To walk in Time, perhaps, as men walk on long roads... to see the lie of old and even forgotten lands, to behold ancient men walking, and to hear their languages as they spoke them, in the days before the days, when tongues of forgotten lineage were heard in kingdoms long fallen by the shores of the Atlantic.
-The Lost Road