Quote

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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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
Stand
Settings
Lasts
Holes
Last
Stone
Upon
Setting
Thrush
Light
Shining
Knocks
Stones
Grey
Keys
Shine
Sun
Hole

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You cannot pass, he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.
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The wise speak only of what they know
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The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.
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Such is of the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
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All that is gold does not glitter.
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People remember Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, quite forget he was a Professor of Modern Languages!
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The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally small reach of their imagination - not the small reach of their courage or latent power.
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I am a Christian…so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ — though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.
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Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not or that you feel good this morning or that it is a morning to be good on?
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Far more often [than asking the question 'Is it true?'] they [children] have asked me: 'Was he good? Was he wicked?' That is, they were far more concerned to get the Right side and the Wrong side clear. For that is a question equally important in History and in Faerie.
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But the only measure that he knows is desire desire for power and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this we shall put him out of reckoning.
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That's the only place in all the lands we've ever heard of that we don't want to see any closer and that's the one place we're trying to get to! And that's just where we can't get, nohow.
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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.
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Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!” he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say ‘out of the frying-pan into the fire’ in the same sort of uncomfortable situations.
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The only just literary critic, he concluded, is Christ, who admires more than does any man the gifts He Himself has bestowed.
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Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.
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And yet their wills did not yield, and they struggled on.
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What do you fear, lady? [Aragorn] asked. A cage, [Éowyn] said. To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.
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And the Ring is so heavy, Sam. I begin to see it in my mind all the time, like a great wheel of fire.
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Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better.
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