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Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. Though all the crannies of the world we filled with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build Gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we're made.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
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.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril he cried aloud: 'I'm coming Mr. Frodo!
J. R. R. Tolkien -
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Seek for the Sword that was broken In Imladris it dwells; There shall be counsels taken Stronger than Morgul-spells. There shall be shown a token That Doom is near at hand, For Isuldur's Bane shall waken, And the halfling forth shall stand.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is coming.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
We meet again, at the turn of the tide. A great storm is coming, but the tide has turned.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Don't go where I can't follow!
J. R. R. Tolkien -
The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Let him go, you filth! Let him go! You will not touch him again!
J. R. R. Tolkien -
The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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To many, perhaps to most people outside the small company of the great scholars, past and present, 'Celtic' of any sort is, nonetheless, a magic bag, into which anything may be put, and out of which almost anything may come. … Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the gods as of the reason.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Dear me! We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights.' 'No,' said Merry. 'I can't. Not yet, at any rate. But at least, Pippin, we can now see them, and honour them. It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
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.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
For it is easier to shout 'Stop', than to do it.
J. R. R. Tolkien