Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Question
Purpose
Believe
Life
Unanswerable
God
Personal

More quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

Image
Where iss it, where iss it: my Precious, my Precious? It's ours, it is, and we wants it.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
I will take the Ring, he said, though I do not know the way.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
The only just literary critic, he concluded, is Christ, who admires more than does any man the gifts He Himself has bestowed.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
Art is the human process that produces by the way (it is not its only or ultimate object) Secondary Belief.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there shoreless seas and stars uncounted beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
You have nice manners for a thief and a liar, said the dragon.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
Green are the leaves I leave in Mirkwood.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
And now leave me in peace for a bit! I don't want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think! Good Heavens! said Pippin. At breakfast?
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
O! Where are you going With beards all a-wagging? No knowing, no knowing What brings Mister Baggins, And Balin and Dwalin down into the valley in June ha! ha!
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
he was for long my only audience... Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The L. of the R. to a conclusion.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
Speak politely to an enraged dragon.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
It gives me great pleasure, a good name. I always in writing start with a name. Give me a name and it produces a story, not the other way about normally.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Image
People remember Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, quite forget he was a Professor of Modern Languages!
J. R. R. Tolkien