”´But that ‘ s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have just landed in them, usually – their paths...

It’s wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.

Sleep! I feel the need of it. Yet my axe is restless in my hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!

Fair speech may hide a foul heart.

Oh! That was poetry!” said Pippin. “Do you really mean to start before the break of day?

It needs but one foe to breed a war, and those who have not swords can still die upon them.

I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a Shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the...

On ne peut la voir, on ne peut la sentir,On ne peut l’entendre, on ne peut la respirer.Elle s’étend derrière les étoiles et sous les collines.Elle remplit les trous vides.Elle vient d’abord et suit après.Elle...

Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.

In account after account of exorcisms the demonic voices will propound nihilism of one variety or another.

What shall we do, what shall we do! Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves is like out of the frying pan and into the fire!

Yes” Said Gandalf; “for it will be better to ride back three together than one alone. Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of out fellowship in...

The chief purpose of life, for any of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.

A light like the glint of water on dewy grass flashed from under her feet as she danced.

If a ragnar ”¶k would burn all the slums and gas-works, and shabby garages, and long arc-lit suburbs, it could for me burn all the works of art and I’d go back to trees..

The Road goes ever on and onOut from the door where it began.Now far ahead the Road has gone,Let others follow it who can!Let them a journey new begin,But I at last with weary feetWill...

He wondered what the mans name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil at heart, or what lies or threats had lead him on the long march from his home;...

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it...

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

To the sea, to the sea! The white gulls are crying,The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.West, west away, the round sun is falling, Grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them...

Then holding the star aloft and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes.

Non tocca a noi dominare tutte le maree del mondo; il nostro compito è di fare il possibile per la salvezza degli anni nei quali viviamo, sradicando il male dai campi che conosciamo, al fine...

Grief is a hone to a hard mind.

I may be a burglar…but I’m an honest one, I hope, more or less.

Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves, and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood...

Touching your cap to the squire may be damn bad for the squire, but it’s damn good for you.

Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit of folklorists or anthropologists: that is of people using the stories not as they were meant to be...

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

These folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart we shall afflict them in all ways that we can.

Last of all Hurin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until...

hope is not victory

A fool, but an honest fool, you remain, Peregrin Took. Wiser ones migth have done worse in such a pass. But mark this! You have been saved, and all your friends too, mainly by good...

The treacherous are ever distrustful.

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s risingI came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing.To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,’ said Frodo.Sam looked at him unhappily. ‘It all depends on what you want,’ put in Merry. ‘You can trust us to stick with you through...

All this last day Frodo had not spoken, but had walked half-bowed, often stumbling, as if his eyes no longer saw the way before his feet. Sam guessed that among all their pains he bore...

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, sandy hole with nothing in...

I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!

Now and again he spoke to those that served him and thanked them in their own language. They smiled at him and said laughing: ‘Here is a jewel among hobbits!

And when [Bëor] lay dead, of no wound or grief, but stricken by age, the Eldar saw for the first time the swift waning of the life of Men, and the death of weariness which...

Good Morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim...

There isn’t no call to go talking of pushing and pulling. Boats are quite tricky enough for those that sit still without looking for further for the cause of trouble.

For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream.

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day ‘ s rising I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.To hope ‘ s end I rode and to heart ‘ s breaking:Now for wrath, now...

Don’t you know my name yet? That’s the only answer. Tell me, who are you alone, yourself and nameless? But you are young and I am old. Eldest, that’s what I am. Mark my words,...

God is the God of men…and of elves.

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...