If you’re looking for a little motivation—whether to save the world from Sauron or just kick butt in your next Zoom call—here are 78 of the best Lord of the Rings quotes to inspire you to do your best, as well as answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the franchise’s most iconic lines.
Lord of the Rings Quotes
- “Not all those who wander are lost.” — Bilbo Baggins
- “All’s well that ends better.” — Hamfast Gamgee New Line Cinema
- “Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.” — Aragorn New Line Cinema
- “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” — Galadriel New Line Cinema
- “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 New Line Cinema
- “Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” – Elrond UnSplash
- “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”— Sam Gamgee New Line Cinema
- “Your time will come. You will face the same Evil, and you will defeat it.” – Arwen New Line Cinema
- “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – Thorin Oakenshield New Line Cinema
- “A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.”— Aragorn Warner Bros. New Line Cinema
- “It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.” — Frodo
- “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
- “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
- “Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.” — Gandalf
- “Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror.” — Gimli
- “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.” – Galadriel
- “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
- “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” — Galadriel
- “I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.” – Arwen
- “But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.” — Sam Gamgee
- “In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.” — Faramir UnSplash
- “For behold! the storm comes, and now all friends should gather together, lest each singly be destroyed.” – Gandalf
- “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.” — Sam Gangee
- “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — Gandalf
- “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
- “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” – Gimli
- “He that breaks a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.” — Gandalf
- “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.” — Gildor
- “The Ring has awoken, it’s heard its master’s call.” – Gandalf
- “It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing … such a little thing.”— Boromir
- “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 (quoting Bilbo Baggins) UnSplash
- “Who knows? Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope!” — Gandalf
- “Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.” – Legolas
- “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.” — Galadriel
- “Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.” – Bilbo Baggins
- “May your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years!” — Gandalf
- “The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.” – Warden
- “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
- “For the time will soon come when Hobbits will shape the fortunes of all.” – Galadriel
- “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 board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time.” – Gandalf UnSplash
- “You are the luckiest, the canniest, and the most reckless man I ever knew.” – Gimli
- “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.” — Galadriel
- “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
- “Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
- “The wise speak only of what they know.” – Gandalf
- “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.” – Sam Gamgee
- “Courage is found in unlikely places.” – Gildor
- “It is not the strength of the body, but the strength of the spirit.” — J.R.R. Tolkien UnSplash
- “You shall not pass!” — Gandalf
- “You can not hide, I see you! There is no life after me. Only death!” — Sauron
- “No, thank you! We don’t want any more visitors, well-wishers or distant relations!” — Bilbo Baggins
- “When in doubt, follow your nose.” — Gandalf
- “All shall love me and despair!” — Galadriel
- “I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.” — Frodo
- “I can avoid being seen, if I wish, but to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift.” — Aragorn
- “A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.” — Gandalf
- “Fly, you fools!” — Gandalf
- “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 a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing.” — Boromir
- “Potatoes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew.” — Samwise Gamgee
- “You’ll find more cheer in a graveyard.” — Gimli UnSplash
- “War will make corpses of us all.” — Faramir
- “Do not be so quick to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise do not see all ends.” — Gandalf
- “The old world will burn in the fires of industry. The forests will fall. A new order will rise.” — Saruman
- “You have no authority here! Your orders mean nothing!” — Éomer
- “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.” — Samwise Gamgee
- “I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or tales.” — Samwise Gamgee
- “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
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Quotes
- “There can be no trust between hammer and rock.” — King Durin III Prime Video
- “There is no secret worth concealing with deception.” — Elrond Prime Video
- “An avalanche can start with one stone.” — Pharazôn Prime Video
- “Nothing is evil in the beginning.” — Galadriel Prime Video
- “If we didn’t do everything we weren’t supposed to, we’d hardly do anything at all.” — Nori Brandyfoot Prime Video
- “Beauty has great power to heal the soul.” — Arondir Prime Video
- “Hope is never mere, even when it is meager.” — Gil-Galad Prime Video
- “Everyone, each of us, needs to decide who we shall be.” — Queen Regent Míriel Prime Video
What is the most famous quote from Lord of the Rings?
There are a few quotes from the Lord of the Rings books and films that fans often argue are the best or most famous. The most popular choices are:
“Not all those who wander are lost.” — Bilbo Baggins“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — Gandalf“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 (quoting Bilbo Baggins)“My precious!” — Gollum“Go where you must go, and hope!”— Gandalf
What is the “Is it safe” Lord of the Rings quote?
In the film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf asks Frodo, “Is it secret? Is it safe?” At that point in the story, Frodo is the keeper of the ring, hiding it away even though he doesn’t understand the full extent of the ring’s power or its significance.
Is Lord of the Rings inspirational?
Lord of the Rings is inspirational in the sense that it has Christian and Catholic themes. Tolkien himself said of the series, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion,’ to cults or practices, in the imaginary world.”
What does Gandalf say to Frodo?
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo tells Gandalf, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Looking for more magic? Stream all of the Harry Potter movies!