And the Ring is so heavy, Sam. I begin to see it in my mind all the time, like a great wheel… — J. R. R. Tolkien Fire Copy Share Image
Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
For some time I lived in fear of receiving a letter signed 'S. Gollum'. That would have been more difficult to deal… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I don't want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse. — J. R. R. Tolkien Battle 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 Apartheid Copy Share Image
I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and of people who will see a world that I shall… — J. R. R. Tolkien Fire Copy Share Image
“Where was I? O yes- I was not grabbed. I killed a goblin or two with a flash-" "Good!" growled Beorn. "It… — J. R. R. Tolkien Gandalf Copy Share Image
“You'll live to regret it, young fellow! Why didn't you go too? You don't belong here; you're no Baggins—you—you're a Brandybuck!' 'Did… — J. R. R. Tolkien Hobbit Copy Share Image
I don't deny it," said Frodo, looking at Sam, who was now grinning. "I don't deny it, but I'll never believe you… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
One has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are… — J. R. R. Tolkien Bears Copy Share Image
Middle-earth is our world. I have (of course) placed the action in a purely imaginary (though not wholly impossible) period of antiquity,… — J. R. R. Tolkien Action 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
Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess; it was no more than… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I have never had much confidence in my own work, and even now when I am assured (still much to my grateful… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that… — J. R. R. Tolkien Allegory Copy Share Image
Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary, and dungeons for the overbold. — J. R. R. Tolkien Dungeons Copy Share Image
People remember Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, quite forget he was a Professor of Modern Languages! — 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… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
But the enemy has the move, and he is about to open his full game. And pawns are as likely to see… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Outside the ring of dancing warriors with spears and axes stood wolves at a respectful distance, watching and waiting. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts. (Ghan-buri-Ghan, of allies during war) — J. R. R. Tolkien Allies Copy Share Image
Being a cheerful hobbit, he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed. (Of Sam) — J. R. R. Tolkien Cheerful 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 Allegory Copy Share Image
But it seems that the wind is setting East, and the withering of all Woods may be drawing near. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation - This story begins and ends in joy. — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its… — J. R. R. Tolkien Allegory 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 Aesthetic Copy Share Image
“Despair, or folly?’ said Gandalf. ‘It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.… — J. R. R. Tolkien Despair 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… — J. R. R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
'Nonetheless day will bring hope to me,' said Aragorn. 'Is it not said that no foe has ever taken the Hornburg, if… — J. R. R. Tolkien Foe Copy Share Image
He did not go much further, but sat down on the cold floor and gave himself up to complete miserableness, for a… — J. R. R. Tolkien Cold 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… — J. R. R. Tolkien Contempt Copy Share Image
“Then Bilbo remembered his ring! "Well I'm blessed!" said he. "This invisibility has its drawbacks after all. Otherwise I suppose I might… — J. R. R. Tolkien Bilbo-baggins Copy Share Image
The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We… — J. R. R. Tolkien Bankers Copy Share Image
Most English-speaking people, for instance, will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if dissociated from its sense (and its spelling). More… — J. R. R. Tolkien Beautiful Copy Share Image
Sleep! I feel the need of it, as never I thought any dwarf could , riding is tiring work. Yet my axe… — J. R. R. Tolkien Atheism Copy Share Image
I should have said Welsh has always attracted me. By its style and sound more than any other, ever though I first… — 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
