70 Best The Lord of the Rings Quotes

We are bringing you the 70 best The Lord of the Rings quotes of all time. J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-Earth has offered us some amazing quotes over the years, and you can find them here.

Best The Lord of the Rings Quotes

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

It is not the strength of the body, but the strength of the spirit.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Even the smallest person can change the course of history.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Yet 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.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing… such a little thing.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Many are the strange chances of the world, and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the wise falter.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

The burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Who knows? Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope!

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not!

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet, though you do not see them.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

PIPPIN: I didn’t think it would end this way.

GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?

GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

PIPPIN: Well, that isn’t so bad.

GANDALF: No. No, it isn’t.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Home is behind, the world ahead,
and there are many paths to tread
through shadows to the edge of night,
until the stars are all alight.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

All’s well that ends better.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I am old, Gandalf. I don’t look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Where there’s life there’s hope, and need of vittles.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: 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 to us.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinuviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.

There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled.
He walked along and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.

Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening.

He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beechen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.

He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hill-top high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.

When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.

Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinuviel
That in his arms lay glistening.

As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinuviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore,
O’er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of iron and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.

Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!”

A cold voice answered: ‘Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.”

A sword rang as it was drawn. “Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may.”

“Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!”

Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. “But no living man am I!

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“I don’t like anything here at all.” said Frodo, “step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.”

“Yes, that’s so,” said Sam, “And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and
looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on, and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same; like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?”

“I wonder,” said Frodo, “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“It was Sam’s first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would rather have stayed there in peace.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“To the sea, to the sea! The white gulls are crying,
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.
West, west away, the round sun is falling,
Grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them calling,
The voices of my people that have gone before me?
I will leave, I will leave the woods that bore me;
For our days are ending and our years failing.
I will pass the wide waters lonely sailing.
Long are the waves on the Last Shore falling,
Sweet are the voices in the Lost Isle calling,
In Eressea, in Elvenhome that no man can discover,
Where the leaves fall not: land of my people forever!”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Someone else always has to carry on the story.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Éowyn!”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“The Dark Lord has Nine. But we have One, mightier than they: the White Rider. He has passed through the fire and the abyss, and they shall fear him. We will go where he leads.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Eldar Race. He knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even under the shadow of the black wings.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a Golden Tree.

Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.

O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now would sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Why, Sam,” he said, “to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the
story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters; Samwise the stout hearted. ‘I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?’ ”

“Now, Mr. Frodo,” said Sam, “you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.”

“So was I,” said Frodo, “and so I am. We’re going on a bit too fast. You and
I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and it is all too likely that some will say at this point ‘Shut the book now, dad; we don’t want to read any more’.”

“Maybe,” said Sam, “but I wouldn’t be one to say that. Things done and
over and made into part of the great tales are different. Why, even Gollum might be good in a tale, better than he is to have by you, anyway. And he used to like tales himself once, by his own account. I wonder if he thinks he’s the hero or the villain?”
“Gollum!” he called. “Would you like to be the hero, now where’s he got to
again?”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Yet 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.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Pippin glanced in some wonder at the face now close beside his own, for the sound of that laugh had been gay and merry. Yet in the wizard’s face he saw at first only lines of care and sorrow; though as he looked more intently he perceived that under all there was a great joy: a fountain of mirth enough to set a kingdom laughing, were it to gush forth.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Fear nothing! Have peace until the morning! Heed no nightly noises!”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“NO ADMITTANCE EXCEPT ON PARTY BUSINESS.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“And still Meriadoc the hobbit stood there blinking through his tears, and no one spoke to him, indeed none seemed to heed him. He brushed away the tears, and stooped to pick up the green shield that Eowyn had given him, and he slung it at his back. Then he looked for his sword that he had let fall; for even as he struck his blow his arm was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Yet at the last Beren was slain by the Wolf that came from the gates of Angband, and he died in the arms of Tinúviel. But she chose mortality, and to die from the world, so that she might follow him; and it is sung that they met again beyond the Sundering Seas, and after a brief time walking alive once more in the green woods, together they passed, long ago, beyond the confines of this world. So it is that Lúthien Tinúviel alone of the Elf-kindred has died indeed and left the world, and they have lost her whom they most loved.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Well, I am going back into the open air, to see what the wind and sky are doing!”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“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.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Over the field rang his clear voice calling: ‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Three Rings for Elven-Kings under the sky
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“That’s the only place in all the lands we’ve ever heard of that we don’t want to see any closer; and that’s the one place we’re trying to get to! And that’s just where we can’t get, nohow.”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to”

– quote by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings