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J. R. R. TOLKIEN QUOTES II

I have in this War a burning private grudge — which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, letter to Michael Tolkien, Jun. 9, 1941

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Return of the King

Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

The treacherous are ever distrustful.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Two Towers

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

The news today about 'Atomic bombs' is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope 'this will ensure peace'. But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, letter to Christopher Tolkien, Aug. 9, 1945

Victory after all, I suppose! Well, it seems a very gloomy business.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit

There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, letter, Sep. 1944

It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Return of the King

Even they, who named themselves the Faithful, did not wholly escape from the affliction of their people, and they were troubled by the thought of death.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Silmarillion

Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more bitterness and shame for a man's heart than to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Return of the King

When the heart of a dwarf, even the most respectable, is wakened by gold and by jewels, he grows suddenly bold.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit

The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

Nothing has astonished me more (and I think my publishers) than the welcome given to The Lord of the Rings. But it is, of course, a constant source of consolation and pleasure to me. And, I may say, a piece of singular good fortune, much envied by some of my contemporaries. Wonderful people still buy the book, and to a man "retired" that is both grateful and comforting.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, letter to Houghton Mifflin Co., Jun. 30, 1955

There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Two Towers

Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

Great heart will not be denied.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Return of the King

Not all those who wander are lost.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, New York Magazine, Nov. 20, 1978

In these parts ... we are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit

The whole thing is quite hopeless, so it's no good worrying about tomorrow. It probably won't come.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Return of the King

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars, not if you care for such things.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit

Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Lord of the Rings

Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Lord of the Rings

The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien

It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Silmarillion

What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes,
And yet never grows?

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, Answer: A Mountain, The Hobbit

The female monster is certainly no deadlier than the male, but she is different. She is a sucking, strangling, trapping creature.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, interview, The Telegraph, March 22, 1968

Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason ... On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy it will make.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, On Fairy-Stories

He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.The female monster is certainly no deadlier than the male, but she is different. She is a sucking, strangling, trapping creature.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Lord of the Rings

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring


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