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

A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land.

Go back?” he thought. “No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!

Fifteen birds in five firtrees, their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze! But, funny little birds, they had no wings! O what shall we do with the funny little things? Roast ’em alive, or stew them in a pot; fry them, boil them and eat them hot?

Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added. And thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory.

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. I am glad that I know about them, a little.

I can’t be the Ring-bearer. Not without Mr. Frodo!

For it is said in old lore, ‘The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.’ And so the rightful king could ever be known.

It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.

Riders!’ cried Aragorn, springing to his feet. ‘Many riders on swift steeds are coming towards us!’ ‘Yes,’ said Legolas, ‘there are one hundred and five. Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is very tall.’ Aragorn smiled. ‘Keen are the eyes of the Elves,’ he said. ‘Nay! The riders are little more than five leagues distant,’ said Legolas.