J.R.R. Tolkien

The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

Short cuts make long delays.

Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.

Courage is found in unlikely places.

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.

War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

I wish it need not have happened in my time, ' said Frodo. 'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.

I have a great love for the language of England, and the English tongue.

The hobbits are, in fact, a self-portrait, if I may say so, not of what I am, but of what I should like to be.

I am a Christian, and of course what I write is, of course, Christian. I mean, I don't mean that I've tried to make it Christian at all, it's not Christian in that sense. It's not propaganda. It is a story, and the Christian element is in it of course, because I am a Christian.

The most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the desire to write has to be given to him, and the means to write depends on his power to bring it out of himself.

I often feel that I am a visitor in this world, that I am not really of it.

I have been a soldier in a great war, and I have seen the evil that men can do.

The only thing that ultimately matters is to have done what you were meant to do.

I have spent my life in the company of books and I have learned much from them.

The elves are not good or evil. They are simply elves.