97 quotes
The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning.
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1936)
Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures.
It was like discovering a complete wine-filled cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.
The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.
"I wish life was not so short," he thought. "Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about."
For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1936)
A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
'Power' is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
'Now is the time!' cried Gandalf. 'Let us go, before the troll returns!'
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.
My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'
When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power.
On Fairy-Stories (1939)
Oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
The Hobbit (1937)
Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.
The Hobbit (1937)
Every morning I wake up and think good, another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.
A rare interview with Tolkien (1966)
Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked).
The Hobbit (1937)
This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away!
The Return of the King (1955)
Against Aeglos the spear of Gil-galad none could stand.
The Silmarillion (1977)