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It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.

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
Lying
Laughter
Comes
Empty
Smelt
Felt
Lies
Riddle
Cannot
Behinds
Fills
Ends
Behind
Kills
Firsts
Seen
Follows
First
Heard
Hills
Life
Stars
Holes

More quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

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Such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them. If one were to sting me, He thought I should swell up as big as I am!
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Fifteen birds in five firtrees, their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze! But, funny little birds, they had no wings! O what shall we do with the funny little things? Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot fry them, boil them and eat them hot?
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool! he said to himself, and it became a favourite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb. You aren't nearly through this adventure yet, he added, and that was pretty true as well.
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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
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You have nice manners for a thief and a liar, said the dragon.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Over hill and under hill
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Farewell! wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey’s end!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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O! Where are you going With beards all a-wagging? No knowing, no knowing What brings Mister Baggins, And Balin and Dwalin down into the valley in June ha! ha!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Above all shadows rides the sun.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mould of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don’t know the recipe but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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There cannot be any 'story' without a fall - all stories are ultimately about the fall - at least not for human minds as we know them and have them.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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For nothing is evil in the beginning.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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evil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I am wholly in favour of 'dull stodges'. A surprising large proportion prove 'educable': for which a primary qualification is the willingness to do work.
J. R. R. Tolkien