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Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes. Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.

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
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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
Dangerous
Wise
Unguarded
Courses
Elves
Running
Counsel
Give
Seldom
May
Ill
Giving
Gift
Even
Advice

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And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.
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The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him.
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Don't go where I can't follow!
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I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril.
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Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.
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Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug the Chiefest and greatest of Calamities.
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Most English-speaking people, for instance, will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if dissociated from its sense (and its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful. Well then, in Welsh for me cellar doors are extraordinarily frequent.
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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.
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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.
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The stars are far brighter Than gems without measure, The moon is far whiter Than silver in treasure The fire is more shining On hearth in the gloaming Than gold won by mining, So why go a-roaming? O! Tra-la-la-lally Come back to the Valley.
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Valour needs first strength, then a weapon.
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Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow, By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us! Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
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I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory.
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Wraiths! Wraiths on wings!
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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 was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to
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I have never had much confidence in my own work, and even now when I am assured (still much to my grateful surprise) that it has value for other people, I feel diffident, reluctant as it were to expose my world of imagination to possibly contemptuous eyes and ears.
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I may be a burglar...but I'm an honest one, I hope, more or less.
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Now I know what a piece of bacon feels like when it is suddenly picked out of the pan on a fork and put back on the shelf! No you don't! he heard Dori answering, because the bacon knows that it will get back in the pan sooner or later and it is to be hoped we shan't. Also eagles aren't forks!
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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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