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If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: 'What is the purpose of life?' is unaskable and unanswerable.

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
Purpose
Believe
Life
Unanswerable
God
Personal
Question

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If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
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I'm in a position where it doesn't matter what people think of me now.
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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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Each of us embodies, in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time & place, universal truth and everlasting life.
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Why was I chosen?' 'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
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Of the twelve companions of Thorin, ten remained. Fili and Kili had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother’s elder brother.
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If this nice friendliness would spread about in Mordor, half our trouble would be over.
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grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mould of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps.
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I don't see why the likes o' thee Without axin' leave should go makin' free With the shank or the shin o' my father's kin So hand the old bone over! Rover! Trover! Though dead he be, it belongs to he So hand the old bnone over!
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You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power.
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Sleep! I feel the need of it, as never I thought any dwarf could , riding is tiring work. Yet my axe is restless in my hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!
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Do not spoil the wonder with haste!
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Very potent influence on myself has been Finnish.
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I am wholly in favour of 'dull stodges'. A surprising large proportion prove 'educable': for which a primary qualification is the willingness to do work.
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And what do you wish?' he said at last. 'That what should be shall be,' she answered.
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You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil.
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Don't the great tales never end? No, they never end as tales, said Frodo. But the people in them come, and go when their part's ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.
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I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at.
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But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
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Farewell! O Gandalf! May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!
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