J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

Quotes

• 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 grows perhaps the greater.

• The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn.

• "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

• Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

• I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.

• If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

• It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish.

• Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soulmate is the one you are actually married to.

• 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.

• All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.

• Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

• In doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom.

• The wise speak only of what they know.