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J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes
1892–1973
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3 1892 – September 2 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, most famous for his classic high fantasy works.
Also known as: J.R.R. Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Jrr Tolkien, Tolkien, Tolkien, J. R. R.
Random J. R. R. Tolkien quote
97 quotes
The High-Elves, … the Noldor or Loremasters, were always on the side of ‘science and technology’, as we should call it: they wanted to have the knowledge that Sauron genuinely had.
Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
The drawing of the scimitars of the Southrons was like a glitter of stars.
Some of the swords were crooked: orc-scimitars with blackened blades.
It gives me great pleasure, a good name. I always in writing start with a name. Give me a name and it produces a story, not the other way about normally.
"Mayhap the Sword-that-was-Broken may still stem the tide – if the hand that wields it has inherited not an heirloom only, but the sinews of the Kings of Men."
Hound is hungry, hare is fearful.
The Two Towers (1954)
Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men — and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.
On Fairy-Stories (1939)
You can make the Ring an allegory of our own time, if you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that awaits all attempts to defeat evil power by power. But that is only because all power magical or mechanical does always so work.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
Black arrow! I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and always I have recovered you.
Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
Mythopoeia (1931)
I do so dearly believe that no half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.
Boromir had a long sword, in fashion like Andúril but of less lineage.
Though fairy-stories are of course by no means the only medium of Escape, they are today one of the most obvious and (to some) outrageous forms of 'escapist literature' ...
From out of the shadow a red sword leaped flaming.
"What other fairer way would you desire?" said Aragorn.
No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.
English and Welsh (1955)
The right has not decayed.
Mythopoeia (1931)
I should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupation with the Lord of the Rings, the knowledge that it would be finished in great detail or not at all, and the fear (near certainty) that it would be 'not at all'.
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
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