894 Quotes by J.R.R. Tolkien

I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see.

Though mortal Men have little life beside the span of the Elves, they would rather spend it in battle than fly or submit. The defiance of Húrin Thalion is a great deed; and though Morgoth slay the doer he cannot make the deed not to have been. Even the Lords of the West will honour it; and is it not written into the history of Arda, which neither Morgoth nor Manwë can unwrite?

For MILO BURROWS, hoping it will be useful from B.B.; on a gold pen and ink-bottle. Milo never answered letters.

Alive without breath,As cold as death;Never thirsty, ever drinking,All in mail never clinking.

Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,for ever blest, since here did lieand here with lissom limbs did runbeneath the Moon, beneath the Sun,Lúthien Tinúvielmore fair than Mortal tongue can tell.Though all to ruin fell the worldand were dissolved and backward hurled;unmade into the old abyss,yet were its making good, for this―the dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea―that Lúthien for a time should be.

This doom she chose, forsaking the Blessed Realm, and putting aside all claim to kinship with those that dwell there; that thus whatever grief might lie in wait, the fates of Beren and Lúthien might be joined, and their paths lead together beyond the confines of the world.

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. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glóin!

Child of the kindly West, I have come to know, if more of us valued your ways - food and cheer above hoarded gold - it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell.

The doom lies in yourself, not in your name.