Philosophy Quote by J.R.R. Tolkien — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Fare well we call to hearth and hall”

“The world was fair, the mountains tall”

“Oh! That was poetry!" said Pippin. "Do you really mean to start before the break of day?”

“I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to”

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”

“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”

“I am what some would say 'holy, and wholly other than you.' The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think.”

“We are the hollow men”

“I have suffered from being alone, but because I have been able to keep my secret I have overcome the suffering of loneliness. To go right to the end implies knowing how to keep one's secret. And, today, there is no greater joy than to live alone and unknown. My deepest joy is to write. To accept the world and to accept pleasure—but only when I am stripped bare of everything. I should not be worthy to love the bare and empty beaches if I could not remain naked in the presence of myself. For the first time I can understand the meaning of the word happiness without any ambiguity. It is a little different from what men normally mean when they say: 'i am happy.”

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned 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!”