I wish life was not so short. Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
People remember Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, quite forget he was a Professor of Modern Languages! — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
American English is essentially English after having been wiped off with a dirty sponge. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
In October 1920 I went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, with a free commission to develop the linguistic side of… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Middle English is an exciting field - almost uncharted, I begin to think, because as soon as one turns detailed personal attention… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
My name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story.… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that 'legends' depend on the language to… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
There are truths, that are beyond us, transcendent truths, about beauty, truth, honor, etc. There are truths that man knows exist, but… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I never liked Hans Christian Andersen because I knew he was always getting at me. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else. Not all those who wander are lost. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he came from. And… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Much of the same sort of degraded and filthy talk can still be heard among the orc-minded; dreary and repetitive with hatred and contempt,… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Many are the strange chances of the world, and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
If you're going to have a complicated story you must work to a map; otherwise you'll never make a map of it afterwards. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
