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No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.

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
John R. R. Tolkien
J-R-R Tolkien
Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
Merely
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He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can.
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I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to
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If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.
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For victory is victory, however small, nor is its worth only from what follows from it.
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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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Tomorrow we may come this way, And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun
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But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.
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On their deathbed men will speak true, they say.
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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.
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Eomer said, 'How is a man to judge what to do in such times?' As he has ever judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.
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We are lost, lost,' said Gollum. 'No name, no business, no Precious, nothing. Only empty. Only hungry yes, we are hungry. A few little fishes, nasty bony little fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death. So wise they are so just, so very just
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Speak politely to an enraged dragon.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Some sang too that Thror and Thrain would come back one day and gold would flow in rivers, through the mountain-gates, and all that land would be filled with new song and new laughter. But this pleasant legend did not much affect their daily business.
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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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But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?
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Speak, or I will put a dint in your hat that even a wizard will find hard to deal with!
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You are a set of deceitful scoundrels! But bless you! I give in. I will take Gildor's advice. If the danger were not so dark, I should dance for joy. Even so, I cannot help feeling happy happier than I have felt for a long time.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I don't know half of you half as well as I should like and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft 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.
J. R. R. Tolkien