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In October 1920 I went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, with a free commission to develop the linguistic side of a large and growing School of English Studies, in which no regular provision had as yet been made for the linguistic specialist.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean-limbed; their gray coats glistened, their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes were braided on their proud necks.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it's my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
They must understand that – Elrond and the Council, and the great Lords and Ladies with all their wisdom. Their plans have gone wrong. I can't be their Ring-bearer. Not without Mr. Frodo.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
And Gandalf said: "This is your realm, and the heart of the greater realm that shall be. The Third Age of the world is ended, and the new age is begun; and it is your task to order its beginning and to preserve what must be preserved. For though much has been saved, much must now pass away; and the power of the Three Rings also is ended. And all the lands that you see, and those that lie round about them, shall be dwellings of Men. For the time comes of the Dominion of Men, and the Elder Kindred shall fade or depart.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
If you're 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.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Middle English is an exciting field - almost uncharted, I begin to think, because as soon as one turns detailed personal attention on to any little corner of it, the received notions and ideas seem to crumple up and fall to pieces - as far as language goes, at any rate.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
'Power' is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
I am not a 'democrat' 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.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
It was like discovering a complete wine-filled cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me….
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Short cuts make long delays.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
J. R. R. Tolkien -
There are truths, that are beyond us, transcendent truths, about beauty, truth, honor, etc. There are truths that man knows exist, but they cannot be seen - they are immaterial, but no less real, to us. It is only through the language of myth that we can speak of these truths.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.
J. R. R. Tolkien -
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