J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes

“It may be your task to find the Cracks of Doom; but that quest may be for others: I do not know. At any rate you are not ready for that long road yet.”

“‘Rope!’ muttered Sam. ‘I knew I’d want it, if I hadn’t got it!’”

“I must rest here a moment, even if all the orcs ever spawned are after us.”

Eldest, that’s what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless – before the Dark Lord came from Outside.

“I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass.The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.”

“‘Not a sound but the wind,’ he said. ‘There are no goblins near, or my ears are made of wood.’”

“Hobbits do not like heights, and do not sleep upstairs, even when they have any stairs.”

“Some there are among us who sing that the Shadow will draw back, and peace shall come again. Yet I do not believe that the world about us will ever again be as it was of old, or the light of the Sun as it was aforetime.”

Gil-galad was an Elven-king. Of him the harpers sadly sing: The last whose realm was fair and free Between the Mountains and the Sea. His sword was long, his lance was keen, His shining helm afar was seen; The countless stars of heaven’s field Were mirrored in his silver shield. But long ago he rode away, And where he dwelleth none can say; For into darkness fell his star In Mordor where the shadows are.

“Something has crept, or has been driven out of dark waters under the mountains. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.”

“I have never been out of my own land before. And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don’t think I should have had the heart to leave it.”

“A little people, but of great worth are the Shire-folk.”

″‘I am glad that you are here with me,’ said Frodo. ‘Here at the end of all things, Sam.‘”

“Do not kill him even now. For he has not hurt me. And in any case I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood. He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it.”

“I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me.”