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

In October 1920 I went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, with a free commission to develop the linguistic side of a large and growing School of English Studies, in which no regular provision had as yet been made for the linguistic specialist.

Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!

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

We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. Though all the crannies of the world we filled with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build Gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we're made.

If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: 'What is the purpose of life?' is unaskable and unanswerable.

For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more--remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.

There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet.