J. R. R. Tolkien

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

“You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.”

“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 pro...”

“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.”

“Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.”

“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 ide...”

“Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.”

“Short cuts make long delays.”

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

“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 o...”

“I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dr...”

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

“The original 'Hobbit' was never intended to have a sequel - Bilbo 'remained very happy to the end of his days and those were extraordinarily long': a sentence I find an almost insuperable ob...”

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

“It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”

“It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend's folly.”

“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.”

“A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.”

“Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.”

“'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.'”