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Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.

J. R. R. Tolkien

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J. R. R. Tolkien
Age: 81 †
Born: 1892
Born: January 3
Died: 1973
Died: September 2
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
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More quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

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Few there were who could change his courses by counsel. None by force.
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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I wish it need not have happened in my time, said Frodo. So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I have never had much confidence in my own work, and even now when I am assured (still much to my grateful surprise) that it has value for other people, I feel diffident, reluctant as it were to expose my world of imagination to possibly contemptuous eyes and ears.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Farewell we call to hearth and hall! Though wind may blow and rain may fall. We must away ere the break of day. Far over wood and mountain tall.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Let the unseen days be. Today is more than enough.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it even with my waking eyes, and all else fades.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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And yet their wills did not yield, and they struggled on.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo, a star shines on the hour of our meeting.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I've always been impressed that we are here, surviving, because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you've done since you left home.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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
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If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: 'What is the purpose of life?' is unaskable and unanswerable.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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The War is not over (and the one that is, or the part of it, has been largely lost). But it is of course wrong to fall into such a mood, for Wars are always lost, and War always goes on and it is no good growing faint.
J. R. R. Tolkien