894 Quotes by J.R.R. Tolkien

Books ought to have good endings.

I regret to announce that - though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to spend among you - this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!

If ever you are passing my way, don't wait to knock! Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time

For LOBELIA SACKVILLE-BAGGINS, as a PRESENT;' on a case of silver spoons… Bilbo believed that she had acquired a good many of his spoons, while he was away on his former journey. Lobelia knew that quite well. When she arrived later in the day, she took the point at once, but she also took the spoons.

I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!

There I go again! When ever you open your big mouth you put your foot in it the Gaffer used to say to me, and right enough.

And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!

Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would have never come, had I known the danger of light and joy.

Egyetlen feltétel van, amit el kell fogadnunk: ha a szatírának akár legkisebb nyoma is fellelhető a mesében, akkor is van valami, amiből sohasem szabad tréfát űzni, s ez a kivétel nem más, mint maga a varázserő. Ez az, amit a történetben mindig komolyan kell venni – azaz: nem szabad nevetni rajta, s nem szabad magyarázatot keresni-adni rá.