Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Italian Proverbs

Your former enemies might cunningly take revenge on you just out of spite. Trust not a reconciled enemy more than an open foe.

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

No matter how piercing and appalling his insights, the desolation creeping over his outer world, the lurid lights and shadows of his inner world, the writer must live with hope, work in faith.

Joy | Light | Mind | Sense | Thinking | Thought | Time | Thought |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark could outmatch in battle.

Humanity | Slavery | Truth |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And long there he lay, an image of the splendor of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.

Care | Nothing | People | Question | Right | Slavery |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.

Debt | Labor | People | Security | Slavery | Time | World |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of And£ril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, D£nadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!

Control | Enough | Improvement | Labor | Money | People | Reason | Responsibility | Slavery | Child | Think |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

But do you remember Gandalf?s words: Even Gollum may have something yet to do? But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him! For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam

Men | Will |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

But the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders. Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek. A sword was in her hand, and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eyes? Still she did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched neck she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone. Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow passed away. A light fell about her, and her hair shone in the sunrise.

Ability | Better | People | Position | Space | World | Think | Understand |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me! Then Merry heard in all sounds of the hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. But no living man am I! You are looking upon a woman. Eowyn am I, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him. The winged creature screamed at her, but then the Ringwraith was silent, as if in sudden doubt. Very amazement for a moment conquered Merry's fear. He opened his eyes and the blackness was lifted from them. There some paces from him sat the great beast, and all seemed dark about it, and above it loomed the Nazgul Lord like a shadow of despair. A little to the left facing them stood whom he had called Dernhelm. But the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders. Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears gleamed in them. A sword was in her hand, and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eyes.

Control | Will |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.' A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes. 'For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.

Will | Youth | Youth |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a Shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.

Art | Heart | Language | Religion | Art |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.

Will |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Follow what may, great deeds are not lessened in worth.

Relationship | Value |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

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

Era |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Gandalf, dwarves and Mr. Baggins! We are met together in the house of our friend and fellow conspirator, this most excellent and audacious hobbit?may the hair on his toes never fall out!

Dynamic | Logic | Understanding | Will | Work |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Hobbits always so polite, yes! O nice hobbits! Smeagol brings them up secret ways that nobody else could find. Tired he is, thirsty he is, yes thirsty; and he guides them and he searches for paths, and they saw sneak, sneak. Very nice friends, O yes my precious, very nice. Sam felt a little remorseful, but not yet trustful. Sorry, he said. I'm sorry, but you startled me out of my sleep. And I shouldn't have been sleeping, and that made me sharp. But Mr. Frodo, he's that tired, I asked him to have a wink; and well, that's how it is. Sorry. But where HAVE you been to? Sneaking, said Gollum, and the green glint did not leave his eyes? Hullo, Smeagol! Frodo said. Found any food? Have you had any rest? No food, no rest, nothing for Smeagol, said Gollum. He's a sneak. Don't take names to yourself, Smeagol, Frodo said. It's unwise, whether they are true or false. Smeagol has to take what's given to him, answered Gollum. He was given that name by kind Master Samwise, the hobbit that knows so much.

Will |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

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!

System | Time | Value |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.

Value |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.

Age | Technology | Will |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mold of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps.

Abundance | World |