Tolkien Quotes

[Mirkgirl]

Well we have the forum... all we need now are threads... It wouldnt be nice to start the section with moves so here we go *drums* lol

We all have read and/or seen Tolkien's works... but what about the things the professor has said outside his books... I believe we all came across Tolkien quotes... share them here!

I'll start with maybe the most famous:

I am in fact a Hobbit, in all but size.

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

[Periantari Andruil]

"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence."
~Foreword of 'Fellowship of the Ring'

"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness and leave many only placed in the scheme and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave some scope for other minds and hands wielding paint and music and drama."

[Black Rider]

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

"I am told that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it. "

[Galadriel]

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens"

"Courage is found in unlikely places"

[Lady of the Rings]

"I don't tick. I am not a machine. (If I did tick, I should have no views on it, and you had better ask the winder.) My work did not 'evolve' into a serious work. It started like that. The so-called 'children's story' [The Hobbit] was a fragment torn out of an already existing mythology. In so far as it was dressed up as 'for children', in style or manner, I regret it. So do the children. I am a philo.logist, and all my work is philo.logical. I avoid hobbies because I am a very serious person, and cannot distinguish between private amusement and duty. I am affable, but unsociable. I only work for private amusement, since I find my duties privately amusing."

J.R.R. Tolkien in response to The New York Times Book Review, asking him, "What...makes you tick?"

*Sorry about the dots in between 'philo logist' . I put them there to stop the LOL smilie from appearing :)

[Mirkgirl]

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 soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.
J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter to Michael Tolkien, March 1941

You can disable smilies, Lady of the Rings... just tick "Disable Smilies in This Post" from the options - philologist

[Lady of the Rings]

Thankyou Mirkgirl :thumbs:

[Amoraq]

"The road goes ever on and on, from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow if I can."

[Lasgalen]

J.R.R. Tolkien to Arthur C. Clarke over lunch, pointing at his diminutive editor.
"THAT's where I got the idea for the Hobbit..."

[Rumil]

On discussing the possibility of an American illustrator for the Hobbit:

"It might be advisable... to let the Americans do what seems good to them - as long as it is possible ... to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)"

:chef:

[Lasgalen]

in a letter to Rayner Unwin on preparations for a British paperback edition

"I am in your hands, but I am still not very happy about the use of this scrawl as a cover. It seems too much in the modern mode in which those who can draw try to conceal it. But perhaps there is a distinction between their productions and one by a man who obviously cannot draw what he sees."

[Periantari Andruil]

About his similarities with hobbits =)

"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size)," wrote Tolkien to a correspondent in 1958. "I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated) . . . I like, and even dare to wear these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much."

[Lasgalen]

from a letter to Allen & Unwin - October 14, 1959

"I fear that to me Siamese cats belong to the fauna of Mordor, but you need not tell the cat breeder that."

[Periantari Andruil]

About the anxieity of publishing Lord of the Rings... he said this to his friend Father Robert Murray:

"I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at."

and i've always loved his poem about people either liking LotR or disliking LotR:

"The Lord of the Rings
is one of those things:
if you like you do:
if you don't, then you boo!"
lol

And I love this Tolkien retaliation to the crtic Edwin Muir about his criticism on hobbits... lol

"Blast Edwin Muir and his delayed adolescence. He is old enough to know better. If he had an M.A. I should nominate him for the professorship of poetry---sweet revenge."
lol

[Frodo's Love]

roflmao

Great ones, PeriAn! I'm nearly tempted to put the poem in my sig. lol

Will be back later with some more quotes. :)

[Nessa the Dancer]

Okay I think it's about time I started posting in this forum sooo


Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, found it boring, absurd, and contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their work, or of the kind of writing they evidently prefer.

J.R.R.Tolkien on Critics; from The Forward of the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings

Go Tolkien you tell 'em!

[Periantari Andruil]

During the process of writing LotR:

"I think The Lord of the Rings is in itself a good deal better than The Hobbit, but it may not prove a very fit sequel. It is more grown up--but the audience for which The Hobbit was written has done that also. ....
The writing of The Lord fo the Rings is laborious, because I have been doing it as well as I know how, and considering eveyr word. The story, too, has (I fondly imagine) some significance"

from the "Letters of JRR Tolkien"

Tolkien really did not have to worry about the appeal of his books :thumbs: =)

[Lady Ashley]

*laugh* Professor T. had a great sense of humor. roflmao If I could have met him, I'd be rolling on the floor every time he said something.

[Periantari Andruil]

i know lol
i think his way of talking also was very distinguishable.. he had somewhat of an accent or something =) It would've been so cool if we could've met him =)

[Periantari Andruil]

"Here I am at the best end of the day again. The most marvellous sunset I have seen for years: a remote pale green-blue sea just above the horizon, and above it a towering shore of bank upon bank of flaming cherubim of gold and fire, crossed here and tehre by misty blurs like purple rain. It may portend some celestial merriment in the morn, as the glass is rising."
~The Letters of JRR Tolkien Letter #79

would you think that this is inspiration for writing the end of his Grey Havens chapter? ;) ahhh~!! so beautiful~

[Miriel Baggins]

Few can foresee wither their road may lead them, till they come to its end.

The Lord is God of men, of angels --- and of elves.

And, this is not exactly what you'd call a Tolkien quote, but it's possibly my favorite line in The Hobbit, so . . . I'm putting it here. :grin:

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.... You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

[Periantari Andruil]

Love the quotes you selected Miriel! =) Thanks for posting them~!

These quotes stand out for me from his biography...

It is written in my life-blood, such as that is, thick or thin; and I can no other.
Tolkien was always worrying about his work not being flawless... ahh he had nothing to worry about~!
and a related quote dealing with his nervousness about publication:

I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at. "
He was speaking to his friend Father Robert Murray ...

the dear Professor had nothing to worry about... look how much it sold... and the appeal LotR still has =) :thumbs:

[Periantari Andruil]

I have long ceased to invent (though even patronizing or sneering critics on the side praise my 'invention'): I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself. Thus, though I knew for years that Frodo would run into a tree-adventure somewhere far down the Great River, I have no recollection of inventing Ents. I came at last to the point, and wrote the 'Treebeard' chapter without any recollection of previous thought: just as it now is. And then I saw that, of course, it had not happened to Frodo at all.

~The Letters of JRR Tolkien: letter #180, January 14, 1956

[Annawen]

No sure where this one came from...

"I look East, West, North, South, and I do not see Sauron; but I see that Saruman has many descendants. We Hobbits have against them no magic weapons. Yet, my gentlehobbits, I give you this toast: To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees."

[Periantari Andruil]

That's a great quote, Annawen! I need to look into who said that too! It sounds so true and written so well!
Thanks fro contributing in this forum, dear~ =) :cuddles:

[Annawen]

Thanks, Periantari! :cuddles:
Tolkien said that, but I'm not sure when, where, why or to whom! :p I just saw it someone else's signature on another site.