"I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, intruding into my relatively safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril."

“Years before I had rejected as disgusting cynicism by an old vulgarian the words of warning given me by old Joseph Wright. 'What do you take Oxford for, lad?' 'A university, a place of learning.' 'Nay, lad, it's a factory! And what's it making? I'll tell you. It's making fees. Get that in your head, and you'll begin to understand what goes on.' Alas! by 1935 I now knew that it was perfectly true. At any rate as a key to dons' behaviour. Quite true, but not the whole truth.”

“I am in fact a Hobbit . I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food , but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms ; have a very simple sense of humor ; I go to bed late and get up late . I do not travel much.”

“Gentlemen are rare among the superiors, and even human beings rare indeed.”

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.”

“Leaf by Niggle - a symbolic story about a small painter" at TolkienLibrary”

“Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men.”