J.R.R. Tolkien

“If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. ”

“I don't know, and I would rather not guess.”

“So the days slipped away, as each morning dawned bright and fair, and each evening followed cool and clear. But autumn was waning fast; slowly the golden light faded to pale silver, and the lingering leaves fell from the naked trees. A wind began to blow chill from the Misty Mountains to the east. The Hunter's Moon waxed round in the night sky, and put to flight all the lesser stars. But low in the South one star shone red. Every night, as the Moon waned again, it shone brighter and brighter. Frodo could see it from his window, deep in the heavens, burning like a watchful eye that glared above the trees on the brink of the valley.”

“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.”

“Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit of folklorists or anthropologists: that is of people using the stories not as they were meant to be used, but as a quarry from which to dig evidence, or information, about matters in which they are interested....with regard to fairy stories, I feel that it is more interesting, and also in its way more difficult, to consider what they are, what they have become for us, and what values the long alchemic processes of time have produced in them. In Dasent's words I would say: 'We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones of the ox out of which it has been boiled.'Such stories have now a mythical or total (unanalysable) effect, an effect quite independent of the findings of Comparative Folk-lore, and one which it cannot spoil or explain; they open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe.”

“Far more often [than asking the question 'Is it true?'] they [children] have asked me: 'Was he good? Was he wicked?' That is, they were far more concerned to get the Right side and the Wrong side clear. For that is a question equally important in History and in Faerie.”

“Although now long estranged,Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned,and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned:Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Lightthrough whom is splintered from a single Whiteto many hues, and endlessly combinedin living shapes that move from mind to mind.Though all the crannies of the world we filledwith Elves and Goblins, though we dared to buildGods and their houses out of dark and light,and sowed the seed of dragons- 'twas our right(used or misused). That right has not decayed:we make still by the law in which we're made.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.”

“How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?''It will do well, if it ever comes to that,' said Frodo.'Ah!' said Sam. 'And where will they live? That's what I often wonder.”

“My Precious, my Precious.”

“Gil-galad was an Elven-king.Of him the harpers sadly sing:the last whose realm was fair and freebetween the Mountains and the Sea.His sword was long, his lance was keen,his shining helm afar was seen;the countless stars of heaven's fieldwere mirrored in his silver shield.But long ago he rode away,and where he dwelleth none can say;for into darkness fell his starin Mordor where the shadows are.”

“They also keep a horned cow as proud as any queen;But music turns her head like ale,And makes her wave her tufted tail and dance upon the green....So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle, a jig that would wake the dead:He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,While the landlord shook the Man of the Moon: 'It's after three' he said.They rolled the Man slowly up the hill and bundled him into the Moon,While his horses galloped up in rear,And the cow came capering like a deer, and a dish ran up with the spoon.Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle; the dog began to roar,The cow and the horses stood on their heads;The guests all bounded from their beds and danced upon the floor.With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke! the cow jumped over the Moon,And the little dog laughed to see such fun,And the Saturday dish went off at a run with the silver Sunday spoon.The round Moon rolled behind the hill, as the Sun raised up her head.She hardly believed her fiery eyes;For though it was day, to her surprise they all went back to bed!”

“Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow,By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!”

“Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master:His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.”

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

“And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.”

“I will take the Ring", he said, "though I do not know the way.”

“Supernatural is a dangerous and difficult word in any of its senses, looser or stricter. But to fairies it can hardly be applied, unless super is taken merely as a superlative prefix. For it is man who is, in contrast to fairies, supernatural; whereas they are natural, far more natural than he. Such is their doom.”

“This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away.”

“Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.”

“Rover did not know in the least where the moon's path led to, and at present he was much too frightened and excited to ask, and anyway he was beginning to get used to extraordinary things happening to him.”

“The burned hand teaches best. After that, advice about fire goes to the heart.”

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

“Dear me! We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights.''No,' said Merry. 'I can't. Not yet, at any rate. But at least, Pippin, we can now see them, and honour them. It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not.”

“You are a set of deceitful scoundrels! But bless you! I give in. I will take Gildor's advice. If the danger were not so dark, I should dance for joy. Even so, I cannot help feeling happy; happier than I have felt for a long time.”

“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 Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.”

“Let the unseen days be. Today is more than enough.”

“I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”

“Of all the things that men may heed'Tis most of love they sing indeed.”

“Bilbo’s Last SongDay is ended, dim my eyes,But journey long before me lies.Farewell, friends! I hear the call.The ship's beside the stony wall.Foam is white and waves are grey;Beyond the sunset leads my way.Foam is salt, the wind is free;I hear the rising of the Sea.Farewell, friends! The sails are set,The wind is east, the moorings fret.Shadows long before me lie,Beneath the ever-bending sky,But islands lie behind the SunThat I shall raise ere all is done;Lands there are to west of West,Where night is quiet and sleep is rest.Guided by the Lonely Star,Beyond the utmost harbour-bar,I’ll find the heavens fair and free,And beaches of the Starlit Sea.Ship, my ship! I seek the West,And fields and mountains ever blest.Farewell to Middle-earth at last.I see the Star above my mast!”

“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?”

“Yet seldom do they fail of their seed, 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.”

“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.”

“Well, you can go on looking forward," said Gandalf. "There may be many unexpected feasts ahead of you.”

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

“There was a deep silence, only scraped on its surfaces by the faint quiver of empty seed-plumes, and broken grass-blades trembling in small air-movements they could not feel.'Not a bird!' said Sam mournfully.'No, no birds,' said Gollum. 'Nice birds!' He licked his teeth. 'No birds here. There are snakeses, wormses, things in the pools. Lots of things, lots of nasty things. No birds,' he ended sadly. Sam looked at him with distaste.”

“out of the frying pan and into the fire”

“Drei Ringe den Elbenkönigen hoch im Licht,Sieben den Zwergenherrschern in ihren Hallen aus Stein,Den Sterblichen, ewig dem Tode verfallen, neun,Einer dem Dunklen Herrn auf dunklem ThronIm Lande Mordor, wo die Schatten drohn.Ein Ring, sie zu knechten, sie alle zu finden,Ins Dunkel zu treiben und ewig zu bindenIm Lande Mordor, wo die Schatten drohn”

“Проклет да е Менегрот! Проклет да е и пътят, по който стъпваш! Вече всичко свърши. Сега идва нощта!”

“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.”

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

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

“I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The wise speak only of what they know”

“It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.”

“Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

“Such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them."If one were to sting me," He thought "I should swell up as big as I am!”

“Always after a defeat and a respite," says Gandalf, "the shadow takes another shape and grows again.""I wish it need not have happened in my time," says Frodo."So do I," says 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.”

“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!”