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J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes (1892-1973)
Writer, Poet
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About J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3 1892 – September 2 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, most famous for his classic high fantasy works.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful J. R. R. Tolkien quotes.
“I liked him better than all the other characters[…]”
“Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures.”
“Every morning I wake up and think good, another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.”
“In such 'fantasy', as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.”
“Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.”
of things not found within recorded time.”
“I do so dearly believe that no half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.”
“My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'”
“Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”
“No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.”
“"[M]y friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, 'What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and most hostile to, the idea of escape?' and gave the obvious answer: jailers."”
“There was one picture in particular which bothered him. It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots.”
“You can make the Ring an allegory of our own time, if you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that awaits all attempts to defeat evil power by power. But that is only because all power magical or mechanical does always so work.”
J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes by Topic
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J. R. R. Tolkien on Doom 7 quotes
“Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising, He rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. Hope he rekindled, and in hope ended; Over death, over dread, over doom lifted Out of loss, out of life, unto long glory.”
J. R. R. Tolkien on Trolls 6 quotes
View all 6 quotes on Trolls →J. R. R. Tolkien on Dragons 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Dragons →J. R. R. Tolkien on Time 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Time →J. R. R. Tolkien on War 2 quotes
“"Victory after all, I suppose!" he said, feeling his aching head. "Well, it seems a very gloomy business."”
J. R. R. Tolkien on The Hobbit 2 quotes
“I am personally immensely amused by hobbits as such, and can contemplate them eating and making their rather fatuous remarks indefinitely; but I find that is not the case with even my most devoted ‘fans’.”
J. R. R. Tolkien on Beowulf 2 quotes
“Beowulf is in fact so interesting as poetry, in places poetry so powerful, that this quite overshadows the historical content, and is largely independent even of the most important facts...that research has discovered.”
J. R. R. Tolkien on The Lord of the Rings 2 quotes
“My story [Lord of the Rings] is not an allegory of Atomic power, but of Power (exerted for Domination). Nuclear physics can be used for that purpose. But they need not be. They need not be used at all. If there is any contemporary reference in my story at all it is to what seems to me the most widespread assumption of our time: that if a thing can be done, it must be done. This seems to me wholly false.”
What J. R. R. Tolkien Said About Others
Discover personal opinions J. R. R. Tolkien shared regarding contemporaries.
J. R. R. Tolkien on C. S. Lewis 3 quotes
“So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age—like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.”
J. R. R. Tolkien on Women
J. R. R. Tolkien on Adolf Hitler
“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 (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”
J. R. R. Tolkien on Roy Campbell (poet)
“Here is a scion of an Ulster prot. family resident in S. Africa, most of whom fought in both wars, who became a Catholic after sheltering the Carmelite fathers in Barcelona — in vain, they were caught & butchered, and R.C. nearly lost his life. But he got the Carmelite archives from the burning library and took them through the Red country...However it is not possible to convey an impression of such a rare character, both a soldier and a poet, and a Christian convert. How unlike the Left – the 'corduroy panzers' who fled to America...”
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Quotes About J. R. R. Tolkien
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about J. R. R. Tolkien from others.
Humphrey Carpenter on J. R. R. Tolkien 2 quotes
“Tolkien was, in modern jargon, "right-wing" in that he honoured his monarch and his country and did not believe in the rule of the people; but he opposed democracy simply because he believed that in the end his fellow-men would not benefit from it. He once wrote: "I am not a 'democrat', if only because 'humility' and equality are spiritual principles corrupted by the attempt to mechanize and formalize them, with the result that we get not universal smallness and humility, but universal greatness and pride, till some Orc gets hold of a ring of power—and then we get and are getting slavery." As to the virtues of an old-fashioned feudal society, this is what he once said about respect for one's superiors: "Touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire but it's damn good for you."”
C. S. Lewis on J. R. R. Tolkien 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on C. S. Lewis →George R. R. Martin on J. R. R. Tolkien 2 quotes
“The battle between Good and Evil is a theme of much of fantasy. But I think the battle between Good and Evil is fought largely within the individual human heart, by the decisions that we make. It’s not like evil dresses up in black clothing and you know, they’re really ugly. These are some of the things that Tolkien did; he made them work fabulously, but in the hands of his imitators, they become total clichés. I mean the orc-like creatures who always do dress in black and... they’re really ugly and they’ve got facial deformities or something. You can tell that if somebody’s ugly, he must be evil. And then Tolkien’s heroes are all very attractive people and all that, of course, again this became cliché in the hands of the Tolkien imitators.”
Thomas Shippey on J. R. R. Tolkien
“"Leaf by Niggle" ends as a comedy, even as a "divine comedy," on more levels than one. But while it looks forward to "divine comedy", it incorporates and springs from a sense of earthly tragedy: failure, anxiety, and frustration.”
Colin Wilson on J. R. R. Tolkien
“What so impressed me on that first reading was the self-containedness of Tolkien's world. I suppose there are a few novelists who have created worlds that are uniquely their own -- Faulkner, for example, or Dickens. But since their world is fairly close to the actual world, it cannot really be called a unique creation. The only parallel that occurs to me is the Wagner Ring cycle, that one can only enter as if taking a holiday on a strange planet.”
Edmund Wilson on J. R. R. Tolkien 2 quotes
“Dr. Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct for literary form.”
About J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3 1892 – September 2 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, most famous for his classic high fantasy works.