J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes

You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.

You were not created to just get by with an average, unrewarding, or unfulfilling life. God created you to leave your mark on this generation.

He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.

I think I have written the things I was put on Earth to write.

I am just a regular dude who happened to make it. That's all I am, man. Maybe I was preparing myself in some lifetime to become this person, but I never thought I'd have every rocket shooting off at one time.

Act up to the magnitude of your destiny.

Whatever you're destined to do, you will be.

Against destiny I fulfilled my duty. Uselessly? No, for I fulfilled it.

The paths of glory at least lead to the Grave, but the paths of duty may not get you Anywhere.

Why was I chosen?' 'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between...the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet.

We are immortal till our work is done.

Spiritual beings do not sweat life's small stuff. They also know that most of what drives us crazy in life is small stuff. The only thing that isn't small stuff is the reason you're on earth in the first place: to find that portion of the world's lost heart that only you can ransom with your love and authentic gifts and then return it, so that all of us can experience Wholeness.

Accomplishing something provides the only real satisfaction in life.

I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.

If you were born to be a nail, you had to be hammered.

Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny--he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally--you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you.

Men are immortal till their work is done.

Joy is the goal of existence, and joy is not to be stumbled upon, but to be achieved, and the act of treason is to let its vision drown in the swamp of the moment's torture.

There is no tragedy, only the unavoidable. Everything has its reason for being: you only need to distinguish what is temporary from what is lasting.

We are not to make the ideas of contentment and aspiration quarrel, for God made them fast friends. A man may aspire, and yet be quite content until it is time to raise; and both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment. The very fruit of the gospel is aspiration. It is to the heart what spring is to the earth, making every root, and bud, and bough desire to be more.

I really don't mind dying because I figure I haven't wasted this life. Up until my first book was published I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: No, I didn't screw up.

Let's start anew. Life is goals - Purpose-Attempts - Struggle-Dreams and Accomplishmenties. It sounds confusing (my fault), but it's actually simple.

Success? I don't know what that word means. I'm happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody's eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That's a good day for me.

If you know that things are bound to happen whatever you do, then you may feel free to give up the fight against them.