Tolkien's Greatest Quotes - (From Lord of the Rings & the Hobbit)

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. I wish it need not have happened in my time, said Frodo. So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered, full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing. This shadow, even darkness must pass. I am glad you are here with me, here at the end of all things, Sam. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all. But I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. Courage is found in unlikely places. All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither. Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadows shall spring. Renewed shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out. I will not walk backward in life. Where there's life, there's hope. Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Eowyn. All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The road goes ever on and on. I wish to be loved by another, Eowyn answered, but I desire no man's pity. Three rings for the elven kings under the sky. Seven for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone. Nine for mortal men, doomed to die. One for the dark lord on his dark throne, in the land of Mordor where the shadows lie. One ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a shortcut to meet it. If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. Never laugh at live dragons. His grief he will not forget, but it will not darken his heart. It will teach him wisdom. But no living man am I. You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am. Eoman's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Be gone if you be not deathless. For living or dark undead, I will smite you if you touch him. I want to see mountains again, Gandalf. Mountains. And then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet. Without a lot of relatives prying around. And a string of confounded visitors hanging on the bell. I might find somewhere where I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it. And he lived happily ever after to the end of his days. May the hair on your toes never fall out. You have nice manners for a thief and a liar. Farewell. I go to find the sun. Fair speech may hide a foul heart. I am, in fact, a hobbit in all but size. Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart and try to have patience if you can. And now at last it comes. You will give me the ring freely. In place of the dark lord, you will set up a queen. And I shall not be dark but beautiful and terrible as the morning and the night. Fair as the sea and the sun and the snow upon the mountain. Dreadful as the storm and the lightning. Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure. And found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember, you are over the edge of the wild now. And in for all sorts of fun wherever you go. There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse. Even though the end may be dark. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire. And it has been saved. But not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger. Someone has to give them up. Lose them. So that others may keep them. You must understand, young Hobbit. It takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say. Advice is a dangerous gift. Even from the wise to the wise. And all courses may run ill. Sam, I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales. Frodo. What? Sam, I wonder if people will ever say, Let's hear about Frodo and the ring. And they'll say, Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad? Yes, my boy. The most famousest of Hobbits. And that's saying a lot. Frodo. You've left out one of the chief characters. Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. Frodo. Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam. Sam. Now, Mr. Frodo, you shouldn't make fun. I was being serious. Frodo. So was I. Those were happier days, when there was still close friendship at times between folk of different race, even between dwarves and elves. It was not the fault of the dwarves that the friendship waned, said Gimli. I have not heard that it was the fault of the elves, said Legolas. I have heard both, said Gandalf. A box without hinges, key, or lid. Yet golden treasure inside is hid. The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them. I want to be a healer and love all things that grow and are not barren. The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world. Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere. Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes. How shall a man judge what to do in such times? As he has ever judged, said Aragorn. 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 as in his own house. My armor is like tenfold shields. My teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death. Deep roots are not reached by the frost. One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. All's well that ends better. Farewell, and may the blessing of elves and men and all free folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces. 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 bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort. He stands not alone. You would die before your stroke fell. It was Sam's first view of a battle of men against men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from, and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home, and if he would rather have stayed there in peace. Let him not vow to walk in the dark who has not seen the nightfall. Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens, said Gimli. Maybe, said Elrond, but let him not vow to walk in the dark who has not seen the nightfall. And now leave me in peace for a bit. I don't want to answer a string of questions while I'm eating. I want to think. Good heavens, said Pippin, at breakfast. I may be a burglar, but I'm an honest one, I hope, more or less. There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. But I am the real strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and if by life or death I can save you, I will. Farewell, they cried, wherever you fare till your aries receive you at the journey's end. That is the polite thing to say among eagles. May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks, answered Gandalf, who knew the correct reply. I wonder if people will ever say, let's hear about Frodo and the ring, and they'll say, yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad? Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits, and that's saying a lot. One tiny hobbit against all the evil the world could muster. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring, renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend, legend became myth, and for two and a half thousand years the ring passed out of all knowledge. True education is a kind of never-ending story, a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness. But you comfort me, Gimli. I'm glad to have you standing nigh with your stout legs and your hard axe. I wish there were more of your kin among us, but even more would I give for a hundred good archers of Mirkwood. Fly, you fools. There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of men for this treachery. Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation. Don't leave me here alone. It's your Sam calling. Don't go where I can't follow. Wake up, Mr. Frodo. My dear Frodo, exclaimed Gandalf. Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch. It would be the death of you to come with me, Sam, said Frodo, and I could not have borne that, not as certain as being left behind. But I am going to Mordor. I know that well enough, Mr. Frodo. Of course you are, and I'm coming with you. Yes, they are elves, Legolas said, and they say that you breathe so loud they could shoot you in the dark. Sam hastily covered his mouth. That was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. It is useless to meet revenge with revenge. It will heal nothing. No victory without suffering. For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more, remembering my own sins and follies, and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words. The world isn't in your books and maps. It's out there. What course am I to take? Towards danger, but not too rashly nor too straight. Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on on the story. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. You may not like my burglar, but please don't damage him. No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it. It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life. Courage will now be your best defense against the storm that is at hand, that and such hope as I bring. Sorry, I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning, but please come to tea anytime you like. Why not tomorrow? Goodbye. My precious, my precious. A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night. Someone else always has to carry on the story. Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. I am old, Gandalf. I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well preserved indeed. Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean. Like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change or something. Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet, though you do not see them. His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril, he cried aloud, I'm coming, Mr. Frodo! For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him when he departs to the havens, for mine is the choice of Luthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter. A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds. The burned hand teaches best. After that, advice about fire goes to the heart. Truly, songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug, the chiefest and greatest of calamities. He thought much, but said little. Why was I chosen? Such questions cannot be answered, said Gandalf. You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess, but you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship. I'll get there if I leave everything but my bones behind, said Sam, and I'll carry Mr. Frodo up myself if it breaks my back and heart. Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know. How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend, some hurts that go too deep that have taken hold. Suddenly Faramir stirred, and he opened his eyes, and he looked on Aragorn, who bent over him, and a light of knowledge and love was kindled in his eyes, and he spoke softly. My lord, you called me. I come. What does the king command? Well, here at last, dear friends. On the shores of the sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace. I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit. Well, I am going back into the open air to see what the wind and sky are doing. Few there were who could change his courses by counsel, none by force. But fear no more. I would not take this thing if it lay by the highway, not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin, and I alone could save her. So, using the weapon of the dark lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. Go back to the abyss. Fall into nothingness that awaits you and your master. Come, Mr. Frodo, he cried. I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you. Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy, and to be, and to do. How do you move on? You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back. I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone. I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love. I will take the ring, he said, though I do not know the way. Home is now behind you. The world is ahead. There is a place called heaven, where the good here unfinished is completed, and where the stories unwritten and the hopes unfulfilled are continued. We may laugh together yet. The wise speak only of what they know. Gandalf, I thought you were dead, but then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world? A great shadow has departed, said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land, and as he listened, the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. False hopes are more dangerous than fears. Farewell, O Gandalf. May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected. Gandalf, Dwarves, and Mr. Baggins, we are met together in the house of our friend and fellow conspirator, this most excellent and audacious hobbit. May the hair on his toes never fall out. And what would you do if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation? To whatever end? Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountains, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the west, behind the hills, into shadow. How did it come to this? Yes, I am white now, said Gandalf. Indeed, I am Saruman, one might almost say Saruman as he should have been. Frodo, go back, Sam. I am going to Mordor alone. Sam, of course you are, and I am coming with you. Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell. Alas, not me, Lord, she said. Shadow lies on me still. Look not to me for healing. I am a shieldmaiden, and my hand is ungentle. End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. You ought not to be rude to an eagle when you are only the size of a hobbit, and are up in his airy at night. But do you remember Gandalf's words? Even Gollum may have something yet to do, but for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the ring. The quest would have been in vain even at the bitter end, so let us forgive him, for the quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me, here at the end of all things, Sam. Well, you can go on looking forward, said Gandalf. There may be many unexpected feasts ahead of you. Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves, he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say out of If you are referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved. All I did was give your uncle a little nudge out of the door. In one thing you have not changed, dear friend, said Aragorn. You still speak in riddles. What? In riddles? said Gandalf. No, for I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old. They choose the wisest person present to speak to. The long explanations needed by the young are wearying. Hinder me, thou fool? No living man may hinder me, but no living man am I. The doom lies in yourself, not in your name. Being a cheerful hobbit, he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed. Yes, I am here, and you are lucky to be here too, after all the absurd things you've done since you left home. My mind does not change with the rising and setting of a few suns. All your words are but to say, you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honor, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the house of Eorl, and not a serving woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death. Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the enemy, for good or for ill. We wants it, we needs it, must have the precious. They stole it from us, sneaky little hobbitses, wicked, tricky, false. Come, Mr. Frodo, he cried. I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well. So up you get. Come on, Mr. Frodo, dear. Sam will give you a ride. Just tell him where to go, and he'll go. I am at home among trees. He, Bilbo, used often to say there was only one road, that it was like a great river. Its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 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. Well, I've made up my mind anyway. I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, and then find somewhere where I can rest. He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. Not all those who wander are lost.