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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.

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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Historian
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Military Officer
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
John R. R. Tolkien
J-R-R Tolkien
Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
Good
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Equally
Wrong
Wicked
History
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True
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Faerie

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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.
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He used often to say there was only one Road that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.
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Goodbye, master, my dear! Forgive your Sam. He'll come back to this spot when the job's done - if he manages it. And then he'll not leave you again. Rest you quiet till I come and may no foul creature come anigh you! And if the Lady could hear me and give me one wish, I would wish to come back and find you again. Good bye!
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Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt.
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It [discovering Finnish] was like discovering a wine-cellar filled with bottles of amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me.
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Then Aragorn was abashed, for he saw the elven-light in her eyes and the wisdom of many days yet from that hour he loved Arwen Undómiel daughter of Elrond.
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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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What have I got in my pocket? he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset. Not fair! not fair! he hissed. It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nassty little pocketsess?
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Over hill and under hill
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Tomorrow we may come this way, And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun
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And yet their wills did not yield, and they struggled on.
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A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.
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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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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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Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. Forth, Eorlingas!
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Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.
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If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.
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What did I tell you, Mr. Pippin?' said Sam, sheathing his sword. 'Wolves won't get him. That was an eye-opener, and no mistake! Nearly singed the hair off my head!
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If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved. All I did was give your uncle a little nudge out of the door.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil.
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