Thread: What are your favorite quotes in Lotr?

For example: I like the quote:

"We shall burn like heathen kings before ever a ship sailed hither from the west" - Denethor
Or the rebuttal by gandalf- "Authority is not given to you, steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death".

I was just wondering: What other memorable quotes are out there?

I would like to make a list by the way...

So, who has some memorable quotes that they would like to share?

Two of my favorites come from Gandalf:


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.



'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.'

"I will make a dent in your hat that even a wizard will find it hard to deal with!"- Gimli, in the forest of Fangorn

I also like alot of the poems, and elvish phrases that are too lengthy to put down here.

It's not in Lotr, but the whole of the Lay of Leithian is extremely good, particularly the battle between Felagund and Thu

"Where will wants not, a way opens." - Eowyn

Planning on getting that tattooed someday.

These are a few of my favorites from the second movie:

Gandalf: "Three-hundred lives of men I have walked this earth and now I have no time."

Frodo: "What are we holding on to Sam?"
Sam: "That there's some good left in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."

'I pass the test,' she said. `I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.'

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."

"The treacherous are ever distrustful."

"One thief deserves another."

There are a number of memorable lines in Tolkien's novel, but the one I find most useful in real life is the one you may see in my signature below: “Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn.” I also use this quotation as the MOTD for the personal kinship I maintain with my low level alts. (I enjoy having a personal kinhouse to display my mementos.)

There are far too many people in this world who allow themselves to wallow in negativity, and it is far too easy to be weighed down by them. I use this quotation as a way to ward off that negativity.

"What's a burr-a-hobbit?"

You'd probably have many more replies, except that this thread has been done over and over since the forums started.

I honestly can't name a quote without wanting to say another one immediately after. The Fellowship of the Ring in particular has a plethora of memorable quotes for me.

I cannot remember the exact words but it was when Sam realized he forgot he had a rope and said he should be hung on one as a warning to numbskulls. I laugh out loud every time I read that.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

I cannot remember the exact words but it was when Sam realized he forgot he had a rope and said he should be hung on one as a warning to numbskulls. I laugh out loud every time I read that.

This one actually came up as an answer to one of the trivia threads. Gotta love Sam!

'Rope!' cried Sam, talking wildly to himself in his excitement and relief. 'Well, if I don't deserve to be hung on the end of one as a warning to numbskulls! You're nowt but a ninny-hammer, Sam Gamgee; that's what the Gaffer said to me often enough, it being a word of his. Rope!'

"So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of the Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his undead sinews to his will."

"Morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and the darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them."

I still get goosebumps just typing that one.

[...upon the foremost ship a great standard broke, and the wind displayed it as it turned toward the Harlond. There flowered a White Tree, and that was for Gondor, but seven stars were about it, and a high crown above it, the signs of Elendil that no lord had borne for years beyond count. And the stars flamed in the sunlight, for they were wrough of gems by Arwen daughter of Elrond, and the crown was bright in the morning, for it was wrought of mithril and gold.

Most heart-wrenching moment in the books, imho. Thank the Valar for Google Books.

Not from LOTR, but I found this to be the most moving line of anything Tolkien ever wrote, when Hurin mourned for the death of his daughter and looked North towards Angband and Morgoth, shouting:

“Marrer of Middle-earth, would I might see thee face to face, and mar thee as my lord Fingolfin did!”

There are several, but the one that gets me the most is this passage from 'The Stairs of Cirith Ungol' in The Two Towers

"Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean, hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo's knee- but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth; an old, starved, pitiable thing."

"What do you mean?" he said. "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?"

I use this quite often myself.

The Many Moods of Gandalf

Spooky Scary

Gandalf's eyes flashed. 'It will be my turn to get angry soon,' he said. 'If you say that again I shall. Then you will see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked.' He took a step towards the hobbit, and he seemed to grow tall and menacing; his shadow filled the little room.

Heehee

'What are you going to do then?' asked Pippin, undaunted by the wizard's bristling brows.
'Knock on the door with your head, Peregrin Took,' said Gandalf.

Groovy

'But if you would know, I am turning aside soon. I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.'

Few ever came eastward to Morgul or Mordor; and to the land of the Haradrim came only a tale from far off; a rumour of the wrath and terror of Gondor. - The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

I love it because it reflects the skewed perception of Gondor that distant people would have. Instead of a scrappy underdog that only barely survived, it would seem to be a world stomping colossus.

Originally Posted by Wiedman

I love it because it reflects the skewed perception of Gondor that distant people would have. Instead of a scrappy underdog that only barely survived, it would seem to be a world stomping colossus.

Rather reminds me of the eastern Roman Empire during the Middle-Ages: fabulous tales of its wealth and power among the Slavs, the Turks, and the Arabs, but in reality it was slowly crumbling by about 1100.

Originally Posted by KonstantinPalailogos

"For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth; an old, starved, pitiable thing."

In "Letters of JRR Tolkien" Tolkien himself says -- many times -- that this is his favorite scene. The one that would bring him to tears years later. A precious, fleeting chance that even Gollum could repent. And of course Sam wakes up, sees him, and the moment goes *poof*.

You always wonder how many moments like that there are in your own life.

I have recently read the fellowship of the ring for it he first time and was intrigued by Tom Bombadil. He is immune to the ring's powers, for a start. The following quote is by no means my favourite of Tolkien's rich tapestry of words but it really did make me wonder about Tom as a character and wish that his story was told in mre detail in another volume.

"Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless — before the Dark Lord came from Outside."

Fellowship of the Ring, chapter 7.

Originally Posted by bambubambubambu

Groovy

'But if you would know, I am turning aside soon. I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.'

Always loved that part.

Possibly my favorite from the trilogy:

"Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the City, a rooster crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.

And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last."

Shivers every time I read it.

*NOTE: "rooster" is not the actual wording in the book. Had to change it as #### is apparently censored