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J. R. R. Tolkien
66 quotes
“Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Secret Vice" (lecture, 1931) published in The Monsters And The Critics And Other Essays (1983), edited by Christopher Tolkien
“My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Philologist on Esperanto" in The British Esperantist (May 1932).
“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more Perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his son Michael (March 1941)
“There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (September 1944)
“That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with great difficulty and endless rewriting. I woke up one day (more than 2 years ago) with that odd thing virtually complete in my head. It took only a few hours to get down, and then copy out.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About "Leaf by Niggle", in a letter to Stanley Unwin (18 March 1945)
“The Shire" is based on rural England and not any other country in the world... The toponymy of The Shire...is a "parody" of that of rural England, in much the same sense as are its inhabitants: they go together and are meant to. After all the book is English, and by an Englishman, and presumably even those who wish its narrative and dialogue turned into an idiom that they understand, will not ask of a translator that he should deliberately attempt to destroy the local colour.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Rayner Unwin (3 July 1956), quoted in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1981), p. 250
“I should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupation with the Lord of the Rings, the knowledge that it would be finished in great detail or not at all, and the fear (near certainty) that it would be 'not at all'. The war had arisen to darken all horizons. But no such analyses are a complete explanation even of a short story...”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About "Leaf by Niggle", in a letter to Caroline Everett (24 June 1957)
“I wept when I wrote that.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: response by Tolkien during a "Hobbit Meal" at Rotterdam Holland attended 28 March 1958, in response to Professor Lambers summarizing approximately (as translated by Rossenberg from Dutch) "Gollum is mollified by the vul…
“I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humor (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Deborah Webster (25 October 1958)
“I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones...”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Valedictory address to the University of Oxford (1959)
“the most tragic moment in the Tale comes in II 323 ff. ['The Stairs of Cirith Ungol'] when Sam fails to note the complete change in Gollum's tone and aspect. 'Nothing, nothing', said Gollum softly. ‘Nice master!'. His repentance is blighted and all Frodo's pity is (in a sense) wasted. Shelob's lair became inevitable.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: September 1963 letter to Eileen Elgar here
“I liked him better than all the other characters[…]”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Referring to Gollum. From J. R. R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait, BBC Radio Collection (2001), . CD 1, track 17. Originally from the 1964 interview with Denys Gueroult, first broadcast in 1971.
“[C]ontrary to most people, I think that touching your cap to the squire may be damn bad for the squire but it's damn good for you.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Originally from the 1964 interview with Denys Gueroult, first broadcast in 1971. Excerpted in J. R. R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait, BBC Radio Collection (2001), . CD 2, track 10.
“Gueroult: I thought that conceivably Midgard might be Middle-earth or have some connection? Tolkien: Oh, it is; they're the same word. Most people have made this mistake of thinking Middle-earth is a particular kind of Earth or is another planet of the science-fiction sort, but it's simply an old-fashioned word for this world we live in, as imagined surrounded by the ocean. Gueroult: It seemed to me that Middle-earth was, in a sense, as you say, "this world we live in", but this world we live in at a different era. Tolkien: No, at a different stage of imagination, yes.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by Denys Gueroult for the BBC (January 1965); excerpts played on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Now Read On" (16 December 1970)
“It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. At least I find it so. In fact I dislike Dune with some intensity, and in that unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Bush, 12 March 1966. Quoted in "Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist" by Oronzo Cilli
“Every morning I wake up and think good, another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A rare interview with Tolkien (1966) — "Tolkien's shire" by John Ezard, The Guardian (28 December 1991)
“If you really come down to any large story that interests people – holds the attention for a considerable time ... human stories are practically always about one thing, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tolkien in Oxford (1968), a BBC 2 television documentary (at 21:49)
“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 (1892–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1964 BBC Interview with Denys Gueroult, first broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Now Read On" (January 1971)
“I do so dearly believe that no half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edith, as quoted in J. R. R. Tolkien: a biography (1977) by Humphrey Carpenter, p. 66
“I wish life was not so short," he thought. "Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alboin Errol", in The Lost Road (1987). Compare this with "The lyf so short, the craft so longe to lerne" by Geoffrey Chaucer
“Trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen — and never were so named, till those had been who speech's involuted breath unfurled, faint echo and dim picture of the world.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The heart of man is not compound of lies, but draws some wisdom from the only Wise, and still recalls him. Though now long estranged, man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All wishes are not idle, nor in vain fulfilment we devise — for pain is pain, not for itself to be desired, but ill; or else to strive or to subdue the will alike were graceless; and of Evil this alone is deadly certain: Evil is.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though all the crannies of the world we filled with elves and goblins, though we dared to build gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sow the seeds of dragons, 'twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we're made.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme of things not found within recorded time.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In such 'fantasy', as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, intruding into my relatively safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fantasy is a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And lastly there is the oldest and deepest desire, the Great Escape: the Escape from Death. Fairy-stories provide many examples and modes of this … Fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies. The Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was once a little man called Niggle, who had a long journey to make. He did not want to go, indeed the whole idea was distasteful to him; but he could not get out of it. He knew he would have to start some time, but he did not hurry with his preparations.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was one picture in particular which bothered him. It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's a gift!" he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result; but he was using the word quite literally.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think we shall have to give the region a name. What do you propose?" "The Porter settled that some time ago," said the Second Voice. "Train for Niggle's Parish in the bay.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To many, perhaps to most people outside the small company of the great scholars, past and present, 'Celtic' of any sort is, nonetheless, a magic bag, into which anything may be put, and out of which almost anything may come. … Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the gods as of the reason.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For myself I would say that more than the interest and uses of the study of Welsh as an adminicle of English philology, more than the practical linguist's desire to acquire a knowledge of Welsh for the enlargement of his experience, more even than the interest and worth of the literature, older and newer, that is preserved in it, these two things seem important: Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain; and Welsh is beautiful.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The basic pleasure in the phonetic elements of a language and in the style of their patterns, and then in a higher dimension, pleasure in the association of these word-forms with meanings, is of fundamental importance. This pleasure is quite distinct from the practical knowledge of a language, and not the same as an analytic understanding of its structure. It is simpler, deeper-rooted, and yet more immediate than the enjoyment of literature.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most English-speaking people … will admit that cellar door is "beautiful," especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful...Well then, in Welsh, for me cellar doors are extraordinarily frequent, and moving to the higher dimension, the words in which there is pleasure in the contemplation of the association of form and sense are abundant.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I picture a fairly human figure, not a kind of 'fairy' rabbit as some of my British reviewers seem to fancy: fattish in the stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown). The feet from the ankles down, covered with brown hairy fur.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 27: To Houghton Mifflin (March or April 1938)
“I must say the enclosed letter from Rütten and Loening is a bit stiff. Do I suffer this impertinence because of the possession of a German name, or do their lunatic laws require a certificate of 'arisch' origin from all persons of all countries? … I do not regard the (probable) absence of all Jewish blood as necessarily honourable; and I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 30: To Stanley Unwin (25 July 1938); Tolkien's German publishers had written to ask him whether he was of "Aryan" origin
“I have in this War a burning private grudge — which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 45: To his son Michael (9 June 1941)
“My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) ... 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.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 52: To his son Christopher (29 November 1943)
“As for what you say or hint of 'local' conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain, & not only in South Africa. Unfort[unately], not many retain that generous sentiment for long.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 61: To his son Christopher in South Africa (18 April 1944)
“A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 96: To his son Christopher (30 January 1945)
“The news today about "Atomic bombs" is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope "this will ensure peace". But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 102: To his son Christopher (9 August 1945)