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Tolkien Quotes
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Wise Quotes from Tolkien's Books  |  |
| GANDALF | |
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
Even the most subtle spiders may leave a weak thread.
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.
It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of this malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it.
Only a small part is played in great deeds by any hero.
A treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand.
It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
The wise speak only of what they know
To crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face.
The treacherous are ever distrustful
He cannot be both tyrant and counsellor. (about Saruman)
Often does hatred hurt itself!
ga
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
The burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart. (to Pippin after the palantir incident)
Generous deed should not be checked by cold counsel.
A traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend.
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.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.
| BILBO | |
Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.
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, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.
If you sit on the door-step long enough, I daresay you will think of something.
Now I know what a piece of bacon feels like when it is suddenly picked out of the pan on a fork and put back on the shelf! (after his encounter with wargs and eagles)
| GILDOR | |
It is not your own Shire, Others dwelt here before hobbits were, and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more.
The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
Seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
Do not meddle with the affairs of the Wizards for they are subtle and quick to angre.
| TOM BOMBADIL | |
Some things are ill to hear when the world's in shadow.
| ELROND | |
It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.
Those who made [the three elven rings of power] did not desire strength or domination or hoarded wealth, but understanding, making, and healing, to preserve all things unstained.
Such 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.
Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.
| GLORFINDEL | |
Oft in lies truth is hidden.
| BOROMIR | |
Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon.
| GIMLI | |
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
Sworn word may strengthen quaking heart
It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.
| HALDIR | |
On nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.
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 grows perhaps the greater.
| GALADRIEL | |
Do not trouble your hearts overmuch with thought of the road tonight. Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet, though you do not see them.
| CELEBORN | |
Do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.
| LEGOLAS | |
Do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unkown. Rede oft is found at the rising of the Sun.
Thus is it spoken: Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn.
Follow what may, great deeds are not lessened in worth.
| TREEBEARD | |
'Hill. Yes, that was it. But it is a hasty word for a thing that has stood here ever since this part of the world was shaped.'
Things will go as they will; and there is no need to hurry to meet them.
The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.
| THÉODEN | |
News from afar is seldom sooth.
oft evil will shall evil mar
| ÉOMER | |
Oft the unbidden guest proves the best company.
Hope oft deceives. ... Yet twice blessed is help unlooked for.
These are indeed strange days. ... Dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass.
So many strange things have chanced that to learn the praise of a fair lady under the loving strokes of a Dwarf's axe will seem no great wonder. (to Gimli about Galadriel)
| ARAGORN | |
None knows what the new day shall bring him.
The hasty stroke goes oft astray.
Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.
His grief he will not forget; bit it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom. (of Pippin)
Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?'
A man may do both, For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day! [answering Éothain of Rohan]
Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear.
There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.
One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters.
| | [Éomer]'...How shall a man judge what to do in such times?'
'As he ever has judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and ill have not change 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.' | | The Two Towers: The Riders of Rohan |
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| FARAMIR | |
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.
It is not said that evil arts were ever practised in Gondor, or that the Nameless One was ever named in honour there.... Yet even so it was Gondor that brought about its own decay, falling by degrees into dotage, and thinking that the Enemy was asleep, who was only banished not destroyed. ...[they] hungered after endless life unchanging. Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars.
The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.
| FRODO | |
Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.
It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.
The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear. (thinking of Gollum)
It must often be so, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
...No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memery of tree or grass or flower, no image of the moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it with my waking eyes, and all else fades. (on the Plain of Gorgoroth)
| SAMWISE | |
Fair speech may hide a foul heart.
I've heard some beautiful names on my travels, but I suppose they're a bit too grand for daily wear and tear, as you might say. The Gaffer, he says: "Make it short, and then you won't have to cut it short before you can use it."
| ÉOWYN | |
Where will wants not, a way opens.
It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two.... And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies?
It is not always good to be healed in body. Nor is it always evil to die in battle, even in bitter pain.
| PIPPIN | |
Short cuts make long delays
| GAFFER | |
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles
It's an ill wind as blows nobody no good, as I always say. And All's well as ends Better!
Make it short, and then you won't have to cut it short before you can use it. (on names)
The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear.
| ROHAN | |
Ill news is an ill guest. (spoken by Wormtongue)
Oft evil will shall evil mar. (spoken by Théoden)
- 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.
- - ancient prophecy translated by Bilbo
Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, found it boring, absurd, and contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their work, or of the kind of writing they evidently prefer.
on Critics; from The Forward of the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings
he Hobbits named it the Shire, as the region of the authority of their Thain, and a district of well-ordered business; and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.
from Concerning Hobbits
| Humourous Quotes from Tolkien's Books | |
Don't want fish... [Gollum]
Your pardon, sir! I marked you not, for I was listening to the birds. Indeed sir you find me in a sour temper; for lo! here I have a black-wing rogue fat with impudence who singeth songs before unknown to me. and in a tongue that is strange! It irks me sir, it irks me, for methought at least I knew the simple speeches of all birds. I have a mind to send him down to Mandos for his pertness!
Rúmil, The Music of the Ainur: The Book of Lost Tales, Part One
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. [Bilbo]
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...gentlehobbit... [about Bilbo in FotR Chapter 1]
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