15 Tolkien quotes about life for Tolkien Reading Day 2014

When reading the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings or any other Tolkien book related to Middle-earth I always find quotes that contain great wisdom about life. You know, the kind you read again and again. I’ve tried to gather a small selection of those quotes here to inspire you to pick up one of Tolkien’s books today.

“A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.” – Sador, on loosing a leg by accident after fleeing battle, in The Children of Hurin, The Childhood of Túrin

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – Thorin II Oakenshield in The Hobbit, The Return Journey

“He often used to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep and every path was its tributary. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to.” – Frodo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring, Three Is Company

“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 II Oakenshield in The Hobbit, Over Hill And Under Hill

“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.” – Faramir in The Two Towers, The Window on the West

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past

“It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.” – Frodo in The Return of the King, The Scouring of the Shire

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour 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. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” – Gandalf in The Return of the King, The Last Debate

“Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.” –Gildor in The Fellowship of the Ring, Three is Company

“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 in The Fellowship of the Ring, Lothlórien

“Many are the strange chances of the world,’ said Mithrandir, ‘and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.” – Gandalf in The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

“It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.” – Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. 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.” – Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past

“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.” – Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Ring Goes South

“Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.” – Aragorn in The Return of the King, The Passing of the Grey Company