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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.

J. R. R. Tolkien

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J. R. R. Tolkien
Age: 81 †
Born: 1892
Born: January 3
Died: 1973
Died: September 2
Author
Essayist
Historian
Illustrator
Linguist
Literary Critic
Military Officer
Poet
Teacher
Translator
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
John R. R. Tolkien
J-R-R Tolkien
Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
Heart
Realizing
Cynical
Men
Rather
Seldom
Less
Sins
Words
Folly
Often
Acts
Become
Hearts
Remember
Sin
Follies
Find
Realize
Remembering

More quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

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It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
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I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to
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Yet seldom do they fail of their seed, And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for. The deeds of Men will outlast us.
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Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is.
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Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Now I know what a piece of bacon feels like when it is suddenly picked out of the pan on a fork and put back on the shelf! No you don't! he heard Dori answering, because the bacon knows that it will get back in the pan sooner or later and it is to be hoped we shan't. Also eagles aren't forks!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Have you thought of an ending?' 'Yes , several, and all are dark and unpleasant,' said Frodo. 'Oh , that won't do!' said Bilbo. 'Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?' 'It will do well, if it ever comes to that,' said Frodo.
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Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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
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May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?
J. R. R. Tolkien
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This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don't want to reveal your proper name which is wise, and don't want to infuriate them by a flat refusal which is also very wise. No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time to trying to understand it.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand-—that and such hope as I bring.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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On their deathbed men will speak true, they say.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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For so sworn good or evil an oath may not be broken and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world's end.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Frodo: Go back, Sam! I’m going to Mordor alone. Sam: Of course you are, and I’m coming with you!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Books ought to have good endings.How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?
J. R. R. Tolkien