1,027 Quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

Perhaps it is better not to tell what you wish. if you cannot have it.

But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.

There cannot be any ‘story’ without a fall – all stories are ultimately about the fall – at least not for human minds as we know them and have them.

The dawn is brief and the day full often belies its promise.

For of us is required a blind trust, and a hope without assurance, knowing not what lies before us in a little while.

If you’re going to have a complicated story you must work to a map; otherwise you’ll never make a map of it afterwards.

Venice seemed incredibly lovely, elvishly lovely – to me like a dream of Old Gondor, or Pelargir of the Numenorean Ships, before the return of the Shadow.

That was Thorin’s style. He was an important dwarf. If he had been allowed, he would probably have gone on like this until he was out of breath, without telling anyone there anything that was not known already. But he was rudely interrupted.

He did not falter, as long as there was a path that led toward his goal.