Quotes from J. R. R. Tolkien

I've always been impressed that we are here, surviving, because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.

For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.

And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.

Not all those who wander are lost.

I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.' I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!

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

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.

Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.

I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.

Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go To heal my heart and drown my woe Rain may fall, and wind may blow And many miles be still to go But under a tall tree will I lie And let the clouds go sailing by

In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.

Short cuts make long delays.

A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.

It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.

Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!

Courage is found in unlikely places.