lotr

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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Not all those who wander are lost.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Never laugh at live dragons.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair.  And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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If more of us valued food  and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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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!
J.R.R. Tolkien
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A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Little by little, one travels far
J.R.R. Tolkien
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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 this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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Courage is found in unlikely places.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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What do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked.
"A cage," [Eowyn] 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,The Return of the King
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair

I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see

For still there are so many things
That I have never seen
In every wood in every spring
There is a different green

I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people that will see a world
That I shall never know

But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door
J.R.R. Tolkien
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Children of Hurin
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We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God.  Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming 'sub-creator' and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall.  Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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You can only come to the morning through the shadows.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep...that have taken hold.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?
J.R.R. Tolkien
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But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam.  I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me.  It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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Roads Go Ever On

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.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journey new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sword.

On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, in twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun.

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To claim our long-forgotten gold.

Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold; where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves.

The pines were roaring on the height,
The wind was moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.

The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon's ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

The mountain smoked beneath the moon;
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled their hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.

Far over the misty mountains grim
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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Where did you go to, if I may ask?' said Thorin to Gandalf as they rode along.
To look ahead,' said he.
And what brought you back in the nick of time?'
Looking behind,' said he.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Short cuts make long delays.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. 
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "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 this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain.

...

"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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In one thing you have not changed, dear friend," said Aragorn: "you still speak in riddles."
"What? In riddles?" said Gandalf. "No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Where there's life there's hope.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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You cannot pass," he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. "I am a 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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.  We do not.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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What does your heart tell you? 
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings
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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!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Don't go where I can't follow!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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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,The Hobbit
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Onen i-estel edain, u-chebin estel anim.
(I gave Hope to the Dunedain, I have kept none for myself.)
(Gilraen's linnod)
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings
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Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you've done since you left home.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,' said Frodo.
Sam looked at him unhappily. 'It all depends on what you want,' put in Merry. 'You can trust us to stick with you through thick and thin--to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours--closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We'll wander back and home to bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more--remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart, and try to have patience, if you can.
J.R.R. Tolkien,Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth
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I am in fact, a hobbit in all but size
J.R.R. Tolkien
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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! 
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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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, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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May the hair on your toes never fall out!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Fly you fools
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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Fair speech may hide a foul heart.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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My dear Frodo! exclaimed Gandalf. Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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All's well that ends better.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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No Victory Without Suffering
J.R.R. Tolkien
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But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We're in one, of course, but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring!" And they will say: "Yes, that's one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn't he, dad?" "Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that's saying a lot."
'It's saying a lot too much,' said Frodo, and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart. Such a sound had not been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle-earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them. But Frodo did not heed them; he laughed again. 'Why, Sam,' he said, 'to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you've left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. "I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam, would he, dad?"'
'Now, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam, 'you shouldn't make fun. I was serious.'
'So was I,' said Frodo, 'and so I am.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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There are no safe paths in this part of the world.  Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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We shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually  their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on  and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same  like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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, its only a passing thing... this shadow. Even darkness must pass.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Journeys end

In western lands beneath the Sun
The flowers may rise in Spring,
The trees may bud, the waters run,
The merry finches sing.
Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night,
And swaying branches bear
The Elven-stars as jewels white
Amid their branching hair.

Though here at journey's end I lie
In darkness buried deep,
Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep,
Above all shadows rides the Sun
And Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
Nor bid the Stars farewell.J.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Farewell!  I go to find the Sun!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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I wished to be loved by another,' [Eowyn] answered. 'But I desire no man's pity.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.   And through the air, I am he that walks unseen.

I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly.  I was chosen for the lucky number.

I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water.  I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me.

I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles.  I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!'
Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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I will not walk backward in life.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Children of Hurin
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Home is behind, the world ahead,
and there are many paths to tread
through shadows to the edge of night,
until the stars are all alight.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on on the story.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Farewell!  O Gandalf!  May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Faerie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.
J.R.R. Tolkien,On Fairy-Stories
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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To whatever end. Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountains. Like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the west. Behind the hills, into shadow. How did it come to this?
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Eomer said, 'How is a man to judge what to do in such times?'
As he has ever judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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It was at this point that Bilbo stopped.  Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did.  The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it.  He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Pay heed to the tales of old wives.  It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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A box without hinges, key, or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Criticism - however valid or intellectually engaging - tends to get in the way of a writer who has anything personal to say. A tightrope walker may require practice, but if he starts a theory of equilibrium he will lose grace (and probably fall off).
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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Voiceless it cries,
Wingless flutters,
Toothless bites,
Mouthless mutters.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked).
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail never clinking.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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The road goes ever on and on
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin  to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours  closer than you yourself keep it. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway: there it is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We know a good deal about the ring. We are horribly afraidbut we are coming with you; or following you like hounds.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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I am old, Gandalf.  I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts.  Well-preserved indeed!  Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.  That can't be right.  I need a change, or something.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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Those were happier days, when there was still close friendship at times between folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves.'
It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship waned,' said Gimli.
I have not heard that it was the fault of the Elves,' said Legolas.
I have heard both,' said Gandalf[.]
J.R.R. Tolkien
%
Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves! he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say out of the frying-pan into the fire in the same sort of uncomfortable situations.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower 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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him when he departs to the Havens: for mine is the choice of Luthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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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,The Hobbit, Or, There And Back Again
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Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not Today. Good morning! But please come to tea -any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Good bye!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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PIPPIN: I didn't think it would end this way.

GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?

GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

PIPPIN: Well, that isn't so bad.

GANDALF: No. No, it isn't.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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And now leave me in peace for a bit! I don't want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think!"

"Good Heavens!" said Pippin. "At breakfast?
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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False hopes are more dangerous than fears.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Children of Hurin
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The treacherous are ever distrustful.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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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.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Lord of the Rings
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Surely you dont disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself?  You dont 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!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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The whole thing is quite hopeless, so it's no good worrying about tomorrow.  It probably won't come.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took's great-granduncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfibul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf was invented at the same moment.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Is it nice, my preciousss?  Is it juicy?  Is it scrumptiously crunchable?
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?"
A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King
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It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured for ever. He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made names for them new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lorien there was no stain.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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You cannot pass!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Iluvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Silmarillion
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The consolation of fairy stories, the joy of the happy ending; or more correctly, the good catastrophe, the sudden, joyous "turn" (for there is no true end to a fairy tale); this joy, which is one of the things that fairy stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially escapist or fugitive. In it's fairy tale or other world setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace, never to be counted on to reoccur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, or sorrow and failure, the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies, (in the face of much evidence if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
J.R.R. Tolkien,On Fairy-Stories
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What course am I to take?"

"Towards danger; but not too rashly, nor too straight.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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You may not like my burglar, but please don't damage him.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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Fool of a Took!" he growled. "This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuisance.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.' A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes. 'For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Two Towers
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Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We're in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out loud of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: 'Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring' and they'll say 'Oh yes, that's one of my favorite stories.
J.R.R. Tolkien
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At the hills foot Frodo found Aragorn, standing still and silent as a tree; but in his hand was a small golden bloom of elanor, and a light was in his eyes. He was wrapped in some fair memory: and as Frodo looked at him he knew that he beheld things as they had been in this same place. For the grim years were removed from the face of Aragorn, and he seemed clothed in white, a young lord fall and fair; and he spoke words in the Elvish tongue to one whom Frodo could not see. Arwen vanimelda, namarie! He said, and then he drew a breath, and returning out of his thought he looked at Frodo and smiled.

`Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth, he said, `and here my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread, you and I. Come with me! And taking Frodos hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as a living man.
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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Handsome is as handsome does
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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The world was fair, the mountains tall
In Elder Days before the fall...
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Fellowship of the Ring
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The King beneath the mountains,
The King of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!

His crown shall be upholden,
His harp shall be restrung,
His halls shall echo golden
To songs of yore re-sung.

The woods shall wave on mountains.
And grass beneath the sun;
His wealth shall flow in fountains
And the rivers golden run.

The streams shall run in gladness,
The lakes shall shine and burn,
And sorrow fail and sadness
At the Mountain-kings return!
J.R.R. Tolkien,The Hobbit
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