My love for all things fantasy sparked when I was 14, watching The Fellowship of the Ring. I was so hooked, I then blew my savings on all his books. And let me tell you, I didn’t treat them gently—I scribbled, highlighted, and practically lived in those pages. Now, older and hopefully wiser, I’m still in awe of Tolkien’s work. His literary style, the languages he constructed, and his academic creds brought the fantasy genre its long-due respect. So, whether you’re toasting to Tolkien Reading Day, partying on Hobbit Day, or just love a good quote, let’s dive into J.R.R. Tolkien’s best!
1. “Courage is found in unlikely places.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
2. “The wise speak only of what they know.”
― The Two Towers
3. “False hopes are more dangerous than fears.”
― The Children of Húrin
4. “All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
5. “Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
6. “I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to.”
― The Two Towers
7. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
8. “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.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
9. “Do not spoil the wonder with haste!”
― The Return of the King
10 “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.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
11. “The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
12. “I will not walk backward in life.”
― The Children of Húrin
13. “Where there’s life there’s hope.”
― The Hobbit
14. “Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
15. “One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
16. “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.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
17. “I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”
― The Return of the King
18. “Valour needs first strength, then a weapon.”
― Roverandom
19. “A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.”
― The Children of Húrin
20. “It’s like in the great stories. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come.”
― The Two Towers
21. “For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
22. “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
23. “Many are the strange chances of the world and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.”
― The Silmarillion
24. “There’s some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
― The Two Towers
25. “Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
26. “It’s a dangerous business going out of your front door. There’s no telling where you might be swept off to.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
27. “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.”
― The Return of the King
28. “The deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.”
― The Return of the King
29. “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.”
― The Hobbit
30. “May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.”
― The Hobbit
And that’s a wrap on J.R.R. Tolkien’s incredible quotes! Which one’s your favorite? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on your socials―just make sure to tag The Rockle. We can’t wait to see which ones you pick! And if you can’t get enough of fantasy wisdom, we have more collections for you:
📜 Patrick Rothfuss: Words of Wisdom
📜 C.S. Lewis: 10 Timeless Quotes
📜 Neil Gaiman’s Must-Read Quotes
📜 Fantasy Books: Inspirational Quotes
📜 Brandon Sanderson’s Finest Quotes
📜 The Wheel of Time: 20 Epic Quotes
📜 Funniest Lines from Fantasy Books