J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

We do not accost a physician as we do any mere nobody; nor a magistrate as we do a private individual. We try to get some advantage from the skill of the one and the position of the other. Walk in the sun, and your shadow will follow you, whether you will or not.

Dess shook her head. "Before he walked off, Rex said for you to wait. He said it's totally important you don't touch Angie until he comes back. and he said that if you were a pain about it, I get to hit you with that." She pointed to where the darkling had flung Flabbergasted Supernumerary Mathematician, its tip blackened by ichor and fire. "So, go ahead.

It's got too much hard work slapping them and telling them to shut up.

And from a military school which taught me that to fit into society, you can't just do anything you damn well please because it will suit you. And that it's much better to be with the winners than it is with the losers.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

When I was a kid and got in trouble, I'd always say, Mom, I'm in trouble. Well, Mom, I'm in trouble.

When the Lord sent me forth into the world, He forbade me to put off my hat to any, high or low.

In my day you didn't speak until spoken to.

You never argued with my mother. You couldn't win.

If you treat with courtesy your equal, who is privileged to resent an impertinence, how much more cautious should you be to your dependents, from whom you demand a respectful demeanor.

Whether fighting or spitting, my discipline is unforgiving!

I figure it's okay to make certain rules, whether or not people despise you for it at the time.

Take this not for a threatening for I scorn to threaten any but my equals; but as an admonition from him, who, by nature and duty, has most care of your preservation and prosperity.

Get down, you fool!

If you ever keep [Vice President] Hubert [Humphrey] waiting again, I'll kick your ass down that hall.

One must not mix up prudence with gestures of servility.

If they're acting like a dog, sometimes you're forced to treat people like dogs.

Some things you do-or you're about to do-you can just be like, 'Hey, don't do that because it means trouble.' So I've got to back off.

Hazel!” he yelled. “That box! Open it!” She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. Te label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN. “Open it!” Leo yelled again.

I should as soon think of contradicting a bishop

Nice customs curtsy to great kings.

Keep your mouth shut, and close up the doors of sight and sound, and as long as you live you will have no vexation. But open your mouth, or become inquisitive, and you will be in trouble all your life long.

You do not mess with the special investigators.

The man who submits to violence is debased by his compliance; but when he submits to that right of authority which he acknowledges in a fellow creature, he rises in some measure above the person who give the command.

Don't mess with Mister Inbetween.