“A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.”

Come, Mr. Frodo!’ he cried. ‘I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.

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.

It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.

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.

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

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.

I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air, I am he that walks unseen.

There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.

Fair speech may hide a foul heart.

Never laugh at live dragons.

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.

I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Not all those who wander are lost.

They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn

Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.

Conscience doth make cowards of us all.

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.