When J.R.R. Tolkien set out to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it’s hard to say if he knew he had written lines that would be so uplifting and profound that they would live well beyond his own lifetime. What we do know is that we will always love these quotes from Tolkien’s works about having hope during the darkest of times.
1.
Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
2.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
3.
Many are the strange chances of the world, and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
4.
The world in 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.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
5.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
6.
…do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unknown. Rede is often found at the rising of the sun.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
7.
It’s wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
8.
Yes, sir. I don’t know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can’t turn back. It isn’t to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want — I don’t rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
9.
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?
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Want to relive the greatness that is Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings through more quotes? Check out some of our favorite quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.