30 phrases by JRR Tolkien to meet the creator of Middle-earth

The burned hand teaches best. After that, the advice about fire comes to the heart.

He who has not seen the nightfall must not promise to walk in darkness.

But in the end it’s just a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. And when the sun shines, it will shine brighter. Those were the stories that stayed with you. They meant something, even if you were too young to understand why.

The misfortune of some is the luck of others.

Hope is perhaps born when everything is disgraceful.

You can find the things you’ve lost, but never the things you’ve abandoned.

Not all those who wander are lost.

It is not the strength of the body, but the strength of the spirit.

Indeed, the world is full of dangers, but there is still much that is beautiful, and although love and sadness are mixed in all lands today, perhaps the former still grows stronger.

Suffering is a sharpening stone for a strong mind.

Deeds will not be less courageous for not being celebrated.

What we ourselves choose is very little: life and circumstances do almost everything.

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.

Because a man who runs away from his fear may find that, after all, he has only taken a shortcut to meet you.

Many who live deserve to die. Some who die deserve to live. Can you give them life? So don’t be too eager to judge and condemn someone to death, for even the wisest cannot see both sides.

Dishonest is the one who says goodbye when the road gets dark.

Do not despise the tradition that comes from distant years; perhaps the old grandmothers keep in their memory accounts of things that were once useful for the knowledge of the wise.

Shortcuts cause long delays.

Behind a corner there may be a new path or a secret door waiting.

This is a fallen world, and there is no consonance between our bodies, our minds and our souls.

It often has to be that way, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others can have them.

To crooked eyes, the truth can have a distorted face.

The treacherous are always suspicious.

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and anything can go wrong.

Despair is for those who see the end as a fait accompli.

You cannot imagine what will happen to your heart, but rarely and few will you show what is happening in it.

If there were more people who valued food, joy and music more than vile gold, we would live in a happier world.

Moonlight drowns out everything but the brightest stars.

The world is already full of wounds and misfortunes even without wars to multiply them.

The news that comes from afar is rarely true.