J.R.R. Tolkien love quotes have captivated readers for generations, offering a glimpse into the romantic heart of Middle-earth’s creator. The beloved author of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” didn’t just craft epic tales of adventure and friendship; he also wove beautiful expressions of love throughout his works.
These quotes, ranging from tender whispers to profound declarations, reveal Tolkien’s deep understanding of the human heart and its capacity for love. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of his fantasy worlds or simply someone who appreciates the power of well-crafted words, Tolkien’s reflections on love are sure to stir your soul and perhaps even inspire your own romantic journey.
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J.R.R. Tolkien Love Quotes
J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, while filled with adventure and epic battles, also hold a deep thread of love and devotion. Here are some quotes that capture the essence of love in his legendarium:
“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.” (The Fellowship of the Ring) – This quote highlights that love endures even in a perilous world.
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” (The Fellowship of the Ring) – This speaks to the power of love and determination, even in seemingly insignificant acts.
“A long expected journey makes the destination all the sweeter.” (The Fellowship of the Ring) – Patience and perseverance are rewarded in love, just as in a long journey.
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” (The Fellowship of the Ring) – True love remains steadfast even when faced with challenges.
“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.” (The Lord of the Rings) – This iconic line from Arwen to Aragorn speaks volumes about the power of love and companionship.
“He took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.” (The Lord of the Rings) – This moment showcases the fearlessness and openness of true love.
“They walked away quiet into the quiet of the evening, and no one saw them go.” (The Lord of the Rings) – This line portrays the simple joys and serenity found in love.
“For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” (The Lord of the Rings) – Love can be surprising and unpredictable, yet beautiful for its mystery.
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all who wander are lost.” (The Lord of the Rings) – Love can look different than expected, and appearances can be deceiving.
“The quest of finding something is better than the thing found.” (The Silmarillion) – The journey of love, with its anticipation and growth, can be as rewarding as the destination.
Tolkien quotes on love and marriage
Only the rarest good fortune brings together the man and woman who are really as it were ‘destined’ for one another, and capable of a very great and splendid love. The idea still dazzles us, catches us by the throat: poems and stories in multitudes have been written on the theme, more, probably, than the total of such loves in real life (yet the greatest of these tales do not tell of the happy marriage of such great lovers, but of their tragic separation; as if even in this sphere the truly great and splendid in this fallen world is more nearly achieved by ‘failure’ and suffering). In such great inevitable love, often love at first sight, we catch a vision, I suppose, of marriage as it should have been in an unfallen world. In this fallen world we have as our only guides, prudence, wisdom (rare in youth, too late in age), a clean heart, and fidelity of will…’
— J.R.R Tolkien, Letters, 51-52
“I never called Edith Lúthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 340
“Men are not [monogamous]. No good pretending. Men just ain’t, not by their animal nature. Monogamy (although it has long been fundamental to our inherited ideas) is for us men a piece of ‘revealed ethic,’ according to faith and not the flesh. The essence of a fallen world is that the best cannot be attained by free enjoyment, or by what is called ‘self-realization’ (usually a nice name for self-indulgence, wholly inimical to the realization of other selves); but by denial, by suffering. Faithfulness in Christian marriages entails that: great mortification. For a Christian man there is no escape. Marriage may help to sanctify and direct to its proper object his sexual desires; its grace may help him in the struggle; but the struggle remains. It will not satisfy him—as hunger may be kept off by regular meals. It will offer as many difficulties to the purity proper to that state as it provides easements. No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man, has lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise of the will, without self-denial. Too few are told that—even those brought up in ‘the Church’. Those outside seem seldom to have heard it. When the glamour wears off, or merely works a bit thin, they think that they have made a mistake, and that the real soul-mate is still to find. The real soul-mate too often proves to be the next sexually attractive person that comes along. Someone whom they might indeed very profitably have married, if only—. Hence divorce, to provide the ‘if only’. And of course they are as a rule quite right: they did make a mistake. Only a very wise man at the end of his life could make a sound judgement concerning whom, amongst the total possible chances, he ought most profitably have married! 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 have found more suitable mates. But the ‘real soul-mate’ is the one you are actually married to. In this fallen world, we have as our only guides, prudence, wisdom (rare in youth, too late in age), a clean heart, and fidelity of will…”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 43 (to Michael)
“Lo! Young we are and yet have stood like planted hearts in the great Sun of Love so long (as two fair trees in woodland or in open dale stand utterly entwined and breathe the airs and suck the very light together) that we have become as one, deep rooted in the soil of Life and tangled in the sweet growth.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Wedding poem to Edith (printed in Carpenter’s biography, Tolkien, 1977)
“Old Tom Bombadil had a merry wedding, crowned all with buttercups, hat and feather shedding; his bride with forgetmenots and flag-lilies for garland was robed all in silver-green. He sang like a starling, hummed like a honey-bee, lilted to the fiddle, clasping his river-maid round her slender middle. Lamps gleamed within his house, and white was the bedding; in the bright honey-moon Badger-folk came treading, danced down under Hill, and Old Man Willow tapped, tapped at window-pane, as they slept on the pillow, on the bank in the reeds River-woman sighing heard old Barrow-wight in his mound crying.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“‘Fair lady Goldberry!’ said Frodo at last, feeling his heart moved with a joy that he did not understand. He stood as he had at times stood enchanted by fair elven-voices; but the spell that was now laid upon him was different: less keen and lofty was the delight, but deeper and nearer to mortal heart; marvellous and yet not strange. ‘Fair lady Goldberry!’ he said again. ‘Now the joy that was hidden in the songs we heard is made plain to me. O slender as a willow-wand! O clearer than clear water! O reed by the living pool! Fair River-daughter! O spring-time and summer-time, and spring again after! O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves’ laughter!’ Suddenly he stopped and stammered, overcome with surprise to hear himself saying such things.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
“Cert. Sam is the most closely drawn character, the successor to Bilbo of the first book, the genuine hobbit. Frodo is not so interesting, because he has to be highminded, and has (as it were) a vocation.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Letters 93
Popular quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien
Popular quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s works that capture his profound insights and poetic expression:
- “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “Not all those who wander are lost.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and 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 us.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “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.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” — The Hobbit
- “Never laugh at live dragons.” — The Hobbit
- “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “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.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “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.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “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.” — The Lord of the Rings
- “I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” — The Return of the King
- “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?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” — The Hobbit
- “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.” — The Two Towers
- “The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “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.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.” — The Return of the King
- “Courage is found in unlikely places.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
- “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” — The Lord of the Rings
- “I sit beside the fire and think Of all that I have seen Of meadow flowers and butterflies In summers that have been Of yellow leaves and gossamer In autumns that there were With morning mist and silver sun And wind upon my hair I sit beside the fire and think Of how the world will be When winter comes without a spring That I shall ever see For still there are so many things That I have never seen In every wood in every spring There is a different green I sit beside the fire and think Of people long ago And people that will see a world That I shall never know But all the while I sit and think Of times there were before I listen for returning feet And voices at the door” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “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.” — The Hobbit
- “What do you fear, lady?” [Aragorn] asked. “A cage,” [Éowyn] said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.” — The Return of the King
- “Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.” — The Lord of the Rings
- “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” — The Hobbit
- “Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go To heal my heart and drown my woe Rain may fall, and wind may blow And many miles be still to go But under a tall tree will I lie And let the clouds go sailing by” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
Inspirational J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes (The Hobbit)
- “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
- “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
- “Not all those who wander are lost.”
- “Courage is found in unlikely places.”
- “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”
- “You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.”
- “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
- “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
- “No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.”
- “It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.”
J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes on Love and Life
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “I will not walk backward in life.”
- “There’s some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
- “Little by little, one travels far.”
- “Still round the corner there may wait. A new road or a secret gate.”
- “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.”
- “Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you.”
- “Short cuts make long delays.”
- “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”
- “A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.”
- “And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.”
- “It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly.”
- “There is nothing like looking if you want to find something.”
- “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
- “May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.”
- “Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.”
- “And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.”
- “I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.”
- “The wise speak only of what they know.”
In conclusion, J.R.R. Tolkien’s love quotes stand as a testament to his profound understanding of the human heart. These timeless expressions of affection, woven throughout his epic tales, remind us that love is a universal force that transcends even the boundaries of fantasy.
Tolkien’s words continue to inspire and touch readers, proving that true love is as magical and enduring as the worlds he created. As we reflect on these quotes, we’re encouraged to seek the beauty and depth of love in our own lives, allowing Tolkien’s wisdom to guide us in our personal journeys of the heart.
May these quotes serve as a reminder that, like the most powerful magic in Middle-earth, love has the ability to transform, heal, and bring light to our world.
