The quotations of

J. R. R. Tolkien

English writer and philologist

1892–1973

16 quotes, most often on Art, Writing and War & Peace. Part of the Writers collection.

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
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.
The Two Towers, Gandalf (remembered by Frodo)
- Life & Death
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.
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), Bilbo’s farewell speech
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- Faith
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.
Letter to his son Michael (March 1941)
- Marriage
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.
The Lord of the Rings
- Writing
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
- Money
It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.
- Work
The wise speak only of what they know.
- Wisdom
In doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom.
The Two Towers, Háma
- Wisdom
Fantasy is a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent.
On Fairy-Stories (1939)
- Art
For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.
“Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” (1936), p. 14
- Art
I have in this War a burning private grudge — which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981), No. 45: To his son Michael (9 June 1941)
- Clever Jabs
- War & Peace
All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.
On Fairy-Stories (1939)
- Theology
- Writing
Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures.
“A Secret Vice” (lecture, 1931) published in The Monsters And The Critics And Other Essays (1983), edited by Christopher Tolkien
- War & Peace

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