Quote

We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful.

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
Upon
Indeed
Free
Road
Cannot
Creatures
Maketh
Seems
Walk
Compel
May
Seem
Counsel
Good
Higher
Hateful
Walks
Creature
Point
Tyranny

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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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Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.
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Don't tell us about dreams – dream dinners aren't any good and we can't share them.
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I hope I never smell the smell of apples again! said Fili. My tub was full of ut. To smell apples everlastingly when you can scarcely move and are cold and sick with hunger is maddening. I could eat anything in the wide world now for hours on end - but not an apple!
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The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
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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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I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.
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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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The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow- an Elf!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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One has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.
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The doom lies in yourself, not in your name.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Don't dip your beard in the foam, Father! They cried to Thorin. It is long enough without watering it!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Upon the hearth the fire is red, Beneath the roof there is a bed But not yet weary are our feet, Still round the corner we may meet A sudden tree or standing stone That none have seen but we alone. Tree and flower and leaf and grass, Let them pass! Let them pass!
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.
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The Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story — and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.
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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.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs).
J. R. R. Tolkien
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When he heard there was nothing to eat, he sat down and wept… “Why did I ever wake up!” he cried.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Don't go where I can't follow!
J. R. R. Tolkien