The Fellowship of the Ring Quotes

At the time when this story begins the Bounders, as they were called, had been greatly increased. There were many reports and complaints of strange persons and creatures prowling about the borders,...

Bilbo drew his hand over his eyes. "I am sorry," he said. "But I feel so queer. And yet it would be a relief in a way not to be bothered with it anymore. It has been growing on my mind lately. Some...

Even Gollum was not wholly ruined. He had proved tougher than even one of the Wise would have guessed – as a Hobbit might. There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light...

At no time had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they had never fought among themselves. [...]Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. They were, if it came to it...

"Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case...

"[The poem] came to me then, as if I was making it up; but I may have heard it long ago. Certainly it reminds me very much of Bilbo in the last years, before he went away. He used often to say ther...

[T]he old man was Gandalf the Wizard, whose fame in the Shire was due mainly to his skill with fires, smokes, and lights. His real business was far more difficult and dangerous, but the Shire-folk...

The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient times and long lived in the foothills of the mountains. [...] They were the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far the most nu...