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We are being at once wisely aware of our own frivolity if we avoid hitting and whacking and prefer 'striking' and 'smiting' talk and chat and prefer 'speech' and 'discourse' well-bred, brilliant, or polite noblemen (visions of snobbery columns in the Press, and fat men on the Riviera) and prefer the 'worthy, brave and courteous men' of long ago.

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
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Literary Critic
Military Officer
Poet
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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
Press
Wisely
Noblemen
Talk
Avoid
Visions
Frivolity
Wells
Brilliant
Polite
Snobbery
Well
Worthy
Discourse
Chat
Long
Brave
Hitting
Courteous
Men
Aware
Fats
Bred
Riviera
Speech
Prefer
Columns
Whacking
Presses
Striking
Smiting
Vision

More quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

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I don't feel any guilt complex about The Lord of the Rings.
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.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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If you mean you think it is my job to go into the secret passage first, O Thorin Thrain’s son Oakenshield, may your beard grow ever longer,” he said crossly, “say so at once and have done!
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I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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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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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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Tall ships and tall kings Three times three, What brought they from the foundered land Over the flowing sea? Seven stars and seven stones And one white tree. (The Two Towers)
J. R. R. Tolkien
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What punishments of God are not gifts?
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Rover did not know in the least where the moon's path led to, and at present he was much too frightened and excited to ask, and anyway he was beginning to get used to extraordinary things happening to him.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Then hope unlooked-for came so suddenly to Eomer's heart, and with it the bite of care and fear renewed, that he said no more, but turned and went swiftly from the hall.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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If you're going to have a complicated story you must work to a map otherwise you'll never make a map of it afterwards.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not Today. Good morning! But please come to tea -any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Good bye!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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That was Thorin's style. He was an important dwarf. If he had been allowed, he would probably have gone on like this until he was out of breath, without telling anyone there anything that was not known already. But he was rudely interrupted.
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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Don't tell us about dreams – dream dinners aren't any good and we can't share them.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Yet seldom do they fail of their seed, And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for. The deeds of Men will outlast us.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel! said Aragorn sternly. You know not what you say. There is in her and in this land, no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself. Then let him beware!
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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Where iss it, where iss it: my Precious, my Precious? It's ours, it is, and we wants it.
J. R. R. Tolkien