J. R. R. Tolkien quotes
Born
3 January 1892 Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (modern-day South Africa).
Died
2 September 1973.
Occupation
Author, academic, philologist, poet.
J. R. R. Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
I dislike Allegory – the conscious and intentional allegory – yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited ‘first chapters’. I have indeed written many.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
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
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!
– J. R. R. Tolkien
You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Short cuts make long delays.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
I don’t like allegories.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Courage is found in unlikely places.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Not all those who wander are lost.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
I never liked Hans Christian Andersen because I knew he was always getting at me.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
– J. R. R. Tolkien