Quotes from J. R. R. Tolkien

Little by little, one travels far.

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.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

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...

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.

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

The wide world is all about you. You can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

The world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, For none now live who remember it.

There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over... Faint to my ears came the gathered rumour of all lands: the springing and the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone.

We try to escape as far away only to discover we've been returning all along

Memory is not what the heart desires.

True education is a kind of never ending story — a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness.

True education is a kind of never-ending story . . .

All my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded.

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.

Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?

Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory

Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.

No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.

What do you fear, lady?' he asked. 'A cage,' she said.

What do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked. "A cage," [Éowyn] 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.

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.

All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But... I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.