20 of the Best JRR Tolkien Quotes

JRR Tolkien, the author of gems such as Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, wasn’t just a wordsmith and world-builder par excellence, but he also left behind a legacy of inspiring quotes.

Here, I have, for you, dear reader, a compilation of some of his most treasured quotes.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

Gandalf – The Fellowship of the Ring

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Thorin – The Hobbit

 All that is gold does not glitter

Bilbo – The Fellowship of the Ring

Not all those who wander are lost.

Bilbo – The Fellowship of the Ring

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

Haldir – The Fellowship of the Ring

A man that flies from his fear may find he has only taken a short cut to meet it.

Sador – The Children of Húrin

 It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.

Frodo – The Return of the King

 Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

Gimli – The Fellowship of the Ring

Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.

Aragorn – The Return of the King

 Courage is found in unlikely places.

Gildor – The Fellowship of the Ring

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

Samwise Gamgee – The Two Towers

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

Thorin – The Hobbit

It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.

Frodo – The Return of the King

It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.

Elrond – The Fellowship of the Ring

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. 

Bilbo – The Fellowship of the Ring

[You] can only come to the morning through the shadows.

The Two Towers

Short cuts make long delays.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

Gildor – The Fellowship of the Ring

He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.

Gandalf – The Fellowship of the Ring

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.

The Return of the King

All’s well that ends better.

Hamfast Gamgee – The REturn of the King

I’m sure a fellow Tolkien fan might love these quotes, so be sure to guide them towards this post once you’ve finished reading!

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