Author J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings is an epic, and influential, fantasy that looms large over the literary genre. It also changed filmmaking, with director Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. That reach continues, with Prime Video’s hit prequel series, The Rings of Power. However, it’s also left us with plenty of memorable Lord of the Rings quotes.

The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel, of sorts, to Tolkien’s beloved 1937 children’s book, The Hobbit, and became one of the most memorable, and complex, fantasy novels of all time.

RELATED: 27 Inspiring Quotes From Our Favorite Movie Heroes

In the journey of destroying the One Ring, Tolkien created a magic world where all the forces of good come together to prevent the Dark Lord from unleashing his wrath upon Middle-earth.

It took around 12 years for The Lord of the Rings to be completed, and another six to be published. Thank goodness Tolkien decided to “neglect” some of his tasks as an English professor and dedicate his time writing this titanic success.

The Lord of the Rings teaches us about hope, courage, friendship and sacrifice. Here are 70 Lord of the Rings quotes to prepare you for your next adventure.

Gandalf Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Ian McKellen as Gandalf

“It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.

Gandalf

Many are the strange chances of the world, and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the wise falter.

Gandalf

“The burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.

Gandalf

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.

Gandalf

Who knows? Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope!

Gandalf

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

Gandalf

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Gandalf

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Gandalf

For behold! the storm comes, and now all friends should gather together, lest each singly be destroyed.

— Gandalf

The Ring has awoken, it’s heard its master’s call.

— Gandalf

“May your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years!”

Gandalf

You shall not pass!”

Gandalf

Evil will be drawn to you from outside the fellowship. And, I fear, from within you must trust yourself. Trust your own strengths.”

Gandalf

The wise speak only of what they know.”

Gandalf

The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time.”

Gandalf

A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.”

Gandalf

Frodo Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins

It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.

Frodo Baggins

I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.”

Frodo Baggins

I know what I must do. It’s just… I’m afraid to do it.

Frodo Baggins

Come on Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” 

Frodo Baggins

I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

Frodo Baggins

Sam Gamgee Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee

“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”

Sam Gamgee

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

Sam Gamgee

“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.

Sam Gamgee

RELATED: 23 Ian McKellen Quotes on Acting and Being Honest

Potatoes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew.”

Sam Gamgee

Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.”

Sam Gamgee

Lady Galadriel Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

“Even the smallest person can change the course of history.

Lady Galadriel

“The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true.

Lady Galadriel

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”

Lady Galadriel

RELATED: 20 Game of Thrones Quotes that Will Give You Chills

:Do not trouble your hearts overmuch with thought of the road tonight. Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet, though you do not see them.” 

Lady Galadriel

For the time will soon come when Hobbits will shape the fortunes of all.” 

Lady Galadriel

You may learn something, and whether what you see be fair or evil, that may be profitable, and yet it may not. Seeing is both good and perilous.

Lady Galadriel

“All shall love me and despair!” 

Lady Galadriel

Gimli Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

John Rhys-Davies as Gimli

Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror.

Gimli

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

Gimli

“Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back.

Gimli

You are the luckiest, the canniest, and the most reckless man I ever knew.” 

Gimli

You’ll find more cheer in a graveyard.”

Gimli

Aragorn Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn

“Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.

Aragorn

A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.

Aragorn

Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more bitterness and shame for a man’s heart than to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned.” 

Aragorn

RELATED: Jack Gleeson: Why the Game of Thrones Actor Who Played King Joffrey Disappeared

“This day does not belong to one man but to all. Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace.

Aragorn

I can avoid being seen, if I wish, but to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift.” 

Aragorn

Elrond Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Hugo Weaving as Elrond

Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

Elrond

Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.

Elrond

Nine companions. So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring.” 

Elrond

Bilbo Baggins Quotes from The Lord of the Rings

Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins

Not all those who wander are lost.”

Bilbo Baggins

“Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.

Bilbo Baggins

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

Bilbo Baggins

“It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.

Bilbo Baggins

I thought up an ending for my book: ‘And he lived happily ever after, unto the end of his days.'” 

Bilbo Baggins

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”  

Bilbo Baggins

J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes from Lord of the Rings Books

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

J.R.R. Tolkien

You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread through shadows to the edge of night, until the stars are all alight. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Lord of the Ring Quotes from Other Characters

Orlando Bloom as Legolas

A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night.”

Legolas

What about [dying] side by side with a friend?

Legolas

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

—  Haldir

“Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.”

Legolas

The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

Gildor

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”

—  Warden

Courage is found in unlikely places.”

—  Gildor

“It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing… such a little thing.

Boromir

“War will make corpses of us all.”

Faramir

All’s well that ends better.

Hamfast Gamgee

Your time will come. You will face the same Evil, and you will defeat it.

—  Arwen

“But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.”

—  Celeborn

“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.

—  Arwen

“In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.

Faramir

KEEP READING:

25 George R.R. Martin Quotes that Show the Truth Behind Fantasy