Give with a free hand, but give only of your own.

Short cuts make long delays.

Never laugh at live dragons.

I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity...

Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts.

Not long ago-incredible though it may seem-I heard a clerk of Oxford declare that he ‘welcomed’ the proximity of mass-production robot factories, and the roar of self-obstructive traffic, because it brought his university into ‘contact...

I hope I never smell the smell of apples again!” said Fili. “My tub was full of ut. To smell apples everlastingly when you can scarcely move and are cold and sick with hunger is...

Si diéramos a la comida, la alegría y las canciones más valor que al oro, este sería sin duda un mundo más feliz

Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement....

I don’t know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road,...

Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankless sea

In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.

I shall have to go. But-” and here Frodo looked hard at Sam- “if you really care about me, you will have to keep that DEAD secret. See? If you don’t, if you even breathe...

The one had leaves of dark green that beneath were as shining silver, and from each of his countless flowers a dew of silver light was ever falling, and the earth beneath was dappled with...

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find themOne Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

But they were, all of them, deceived, for another Ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret a master Ring, to control...

Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to...

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.”So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All...

Far over misty mountains coldTo dungeons deep and caverns oldWe must away, ere break of day,To find our long-forgotten gold.

I don’t like anything here at all.’ said Frodo, ‘step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.”Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam, ‘And we shouldn’t...

How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand… there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep.

Then sudden Felagund there swayingSang in answer a song of staying,Resisting, battling against power,Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;Of changing and of shifting shape,Of snares eluded, broken traps,The prison opening,...

Smeagol won’t grub for roots and carrotses and – taters. What’s taters,precious, eh, what’s taters?””Po-ta-toes!” said Sam.

It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange…How shall a man judge what to do in such times?’ ‘As he ever has judged,’ said Aragorn....

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,It lies behind stars and under hills,And empty holes it fills,It comes first and follows after,Ends life, kills laughter.

Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of scientific verity. On the contrary. The...

Seek for the Sword that was brokenIn Imladris it dwells;There shall be counsels takenStronger than Morgul-spells.There shall be shown a tokenThat Doom is near at hand,For Isuldur’s Bane shall waken,And the halfling forth shall stand.

Yes, I am white now,’ said Gandalf. ‘Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.

I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls.

It is a dangerous business going out your front door.

Then another clear voice, as young and as ancient as Spring, like the song of a glad water flowing down into the night from a bright morning in the hills, came falling like silver to...

Criticism – however valid or intellectually engaging – tends to get in the way of a writer who has anything personal to say. A tightrope walker may require practice, but if he starts a theory...

Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand-—that and such hope as I bring.

A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.

Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

Muchos de los que viven merecen morir y algunos de los que mueren merecen la vida. ,Puedes devolver la vida? Entonces no te apresures a dispensar la muerte, pues ni el más sabio conoce el...

Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that came down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of...

please don’t cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean.

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works,...

The more ‘life’ a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.

All that is gold does not glitter…

Faithfulness in Christian marriage entails that: great mortification. For a Christian man there is no escape. Marriage may help to sanctify and direct to its proper object his sexual desires; its grace may help him...

Float beyond the world of trees. Out into the whispering breeze, past the rushes, past the weeds, past the marsh’s waving reeds.

Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn.

The wise speak only of what they know.

Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can. The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears.

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.

Have you thought of an ending?””Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant.””Oh, that won’t do! Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily...

I wish Merry was here,” he heard himself saying, and quick thoughts raced through his mind, even as he watched the enemy come charging to the assault. “Well, well, now at any rate I understand...

For my present purpose I require a word which shall embrace both the Sub-Creative Art in itself, and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the Expression, derived from the Image: a quality essential to...