If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.

Gandalf thought of most things; and though he could not do everything, he could do a great deal for friends in a tight corner.

Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else ... may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds.

I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

It matters little who is the enemy, if we cannot beat off his attack.

I cannot,' said Merry. 'I have never seen them. I have never been outside of my own land before. And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don't think I should have had the heart to leave it.

For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest.