Immerse yourself in the timeless wisdom and unforgettable moments from one of literature and film’s most beloved sagas. The Lord of the Rings has inspired generations with its powerful storytelling and memorable characters. In this collection, we bring you 37 iconic quotes that capture the spirit, courage, and heart of Middle-earth, perfect for fans old and new alike.
1. “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
2. “You cannot pass!” - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. “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 among Elves and Dwarves 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
4. “Sam: I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales. Frodo: [turns around] What? Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, 'Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say 'Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad?' 'Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying a lot.' Frodo: [continue walking] You've left out one of the chief characters - Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. [stops and turns to Sam] Frodo: Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam. Sam: Now Mr. Frodo, you shouldn't make fun; I was being serious. Frodo: So was I. [they continue to walk] Sam: Samwise the Brave...” - J.R.R. Tolkien
5. “Such is of 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
6. “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.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
7. “There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
8. “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
9. “Speak, or I will put a dint in your hat that even a wizard will find hard to deal with!” - J.R.R. Tolkien
10. “Evidently we look so much alike that your desire to make an incurable dent in my hat must be excused.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
11. “His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
12. “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]” - John Rogers
13. “If there are any to see I at least am revealed to them. I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
14. “The two things that came out clearly were the sense of reality in the background and the mythical value: the essence of myth being that it should have no taint of allegory to the maker and yet should suggest incipient allegories to the reader.[C.S. Lewis writes to J.R.R. Tolkien on December 7, 1929]” - C.S. Lewis
15. “...the landscape inside Lord of the Rings was so stunning and so stupendous that it could be absorbed as a form of nourishment.” - Jasper Fforde
16. “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
17. “For Isildur would not surrender it to Elrond and Círdan who stood by. They counselled him to cast it into the fire of Orodruin night at hand... But Isildur refused this counsel, saying: 'This I will have as weregild for my father's death, and my brother's. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?' And the Ring that he held seemed to him exceedingly fair to look on; and he would not suffer it to be destroyed.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
18. “His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
19. “I am the foremost collector of velvet Elvii in the city of Chicago," I said at once. "Elvii?" Marcone inquired."The plural would be Elvises, I guess," I said. "But if I say that too often, I start muttering to myself and calling things 'my precious,' so I usually go with the Latin plural.” - Jim Butcher
20. “He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
21. “You would die before your stroke fell!” - Legolas
22. “The road goes ever on and on” - J.R.R. Tolkien
23. “And there's no sex, hardly any love stuff at all, in Middle Earth, which always made me think, yes, the world would be better off without it.” - Jo Walton
24. “The thing about Tolkien, about The Lord of the Rings, is that it's perfect. It's this whole world, this whole process of immersion, this journey. It's not, I'm pretty sure, actually true, but that makes it more amazing, that someone could make it all up. Reading it changes everything.” - Jo Walton
25. “It is not possible even at great length to “pot” The Lord of the Rings in a paragraph or two … It was begun in 1937, and every part has been written many times. Hardly a word in its 600,000 or more has been unconsidered. And the placing, size, style, and contribution to the whole of the features, incidents, and chapters has been laboriously pondered. I do not say this in recommendation. It is, I feel, only too likely that I am deluded, lost in a web of vain imaginings of not much value to others – in spite of the fact that a few readers have found it good, on the whole. What I intend to say is this: I cannot substantially alter the thing. I have finished it, is “off my mind”: the labour has been colossal: and it must stand or fall, practically as it is. [1951]” - J.R.R. Tolkien
26. “I did not buy a book called Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson, which has the temerity to compare itself, on the front cover, to 'Tolkien at his best.' The back cover attributes the quote to the Washington Post, a newspaper whose quotations will always damn a book for me from now on. How dare they? And how dare the publishers? It isn't a comparison anyone could make, except to say 'Compared to Tolkien at his best, this is dross.' I mean you could say that even about really brilliant books like A Wizard of Earthsea. I expect Lord Foul's Bane (horrible title, sounds like a Conan book) is more like Tolkien at his worst, which would be the beginning of The Simarillion.The thing about Tolkien, about The Lord of the Rings, is that it's perfect.” - Jo Walton
27. “I’m reminded of a book my father used to read me,” she said. “A bunch of elves and things get into a huge war over a piece of jewelry that everybody wants but nobody can wear.” - Lemony Snicket
28. “Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over.” - Junot Diaz
29. “You could fire a machine gun randomly through the pages of Lord of the Rings and never hit any women.” - Neil Gaiman
30. “I am reading The Lord of the Rings. I suddenly wanted to. I almost know it by heart, but I can still sink right into it. I know no other book that is so much like going on a journey. When I put it down to this, I feel as if I am also waiting with Pippin for the echoes of that stone down the well.” - Jo Walton
31. “There is darkness there that never sleeps.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
32. “It is mine to give to whom I will, like my heart.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
33. “Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
34. “J.R.R.Tolkien has confessed that about a third of the way through The Fellowship of the Ring, some ruffian named Strider confronted the hobbits in an inn, and Tolkien was in despair. He didn't know who Strider was, where the book was going, or what to write next. Strider turns out to be no lesser person than Aragorn, the unrecognized and uncrowned king of all the forces of good, whose restoration to rule is, along with the destruction of the evil ring, the engine that moves the plot of the whole massive trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.” - Ansen Dibell
35. “Ceux qui errent ne sont pas toujours perdus.” - Tolkien
36. “And as the captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
37. “It is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
