The Hobbit - Quotes and Proverbs

J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit is one of my favorite books. This is a collection of interesting quotes from The Hobbit.

Showing results 51 to 100 of 100

Off Bilbo had to go, before he could explain that he could not hoot even once like any kind of owl any more than fly like a bat.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 2 - Roast Mutton

Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can't see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won't you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me?

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
Part of Bilbo's song about spiders

On the table in the light of a big lamp with a red shade he spread a piece of parchment rather like a map.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party
About the map which shows The Mountain where the dragon lives.

Outside the ring of dancing warriors with spears and axes stood the wolves at a respectful distance, watching and waiting.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 6 - Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Quite a merry gathering! I hope there is something left for the late-comers to eat and drink! What's that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think for me.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again
Quoted: Gandalf

Royal indeed did Thorin look, clad in a coat of gold-plated rings, with a silver-hafted axe in a belt crusted with scarlet stones.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 13 - Not at Home
About Thorin

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit

So he sat down and wished in vain for a wash and a brush. He did not get either, nor tea nor toast nor bacon for his breakfast, only cold mutton and rabbit.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again

Some called for ale, and some for porter, and one for coffee, and all of them for cakes; so the hobbit was kept very busy for a while.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again
When the dwarves visit Bilbo

Somehow the killing of a giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of a wizard or the dwarves or anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath.
"I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call you Sting."

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
About Bilbo

Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea - any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good bye!

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party
Quoted: Bilbo
Bilbo, trying to get rid of Gandalf

South away! and South away!
Seek the sunlight and the day,
Back to pasture, back to mead,
Where the kine and oxen feed!
Back to gardens on the hills
Where the berry swells and fills
Under sunlight, under day!
South away! and South away!

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 9 - Barrels Out of Bond
Part of a song by the elves

Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party
Quoted: Bilbo
Bilbo Baggins describing the fireworks of Gandalf.

Sssss, .... Praps ye sits here and chats with it a bitsy, my preciousss. It like riddles, praps it does, does it?

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 5 - Riddles in the Dark
Quoted: Gollum

Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 3 - A Short Rest
Moonletters on the map.

Standing near was a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles. He was clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees, and was leaning on a large axe.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 7 - Queer Lodgings
About Beorn.

Swords in these parts are mostly blunt, and axes are used for trees, and
shields as cradles or dish covers; and dragons are comfortably far off, and
therefore legendary.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party
Quoted: Gandalf

Tea-time had long gone by, and it seemed supper-time would soon do the same.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again

The bushes, and the long grasses between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again

The dwarves had heard noises from a distance, and after waiting for some time for Bilbo to come back, or to hoot like an owl, they started off one by one to creep towards the light as quietly as they could.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 2 - Roast Mutton

The King beneath the mountains,
The King of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 10 - A Warm Welcome
Part of a song about the King under the Mountain.

The lord of the eagles of the Misty Mountains had eyes that could look at the sun unblinking, and could see a rabbit moving on the ground a mile below even in the moonlight.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 6 - Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire
About the eagles.

The nastiest things they saw were the cobwebs: dark dense cobwebs with threads extraordinarily thick, often stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either side of them.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
About the forest.

The noise of the giant bees flying to and fro and crawling in and out filled all the air.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 7 - Queer Lodgings
About Beorn's bee hives

The spider lay dead beside him, and his sword-blade was stained black.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
Bilbo killed a spider

The spiders swelled with rage, and spluttered and frothed, and hissed out horrible curses;

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders

The stars are far brighter
Than gems without measure
The moon is far whiter
Than silver in treasure:
The fire is more shining
On hearth in the glooming,
Than gold won by mining,
So why go a-roaming?

O! Tra-la-la-lally
Come back to the valley.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 19 - The Last Stage
Part of a song by the elves.

The sun was shining brilliantly, and it was a long while before he could bear it. When he could, he saw all round him a sea of dark green, ruffled here and there by the breeze; and there were everywhere hundreds of butterflies.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
Bilbo on top of a tree.

The yells and yammering, croaking, jibbering and jabbering; howls, growls and curses; shrieking and skriking, that followed were beyond description. Several hundred wild cats and wolves being roasted slowly alive together would not have compared with it.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 4 - Over Hill and Under Hill
About goblins

Their small knives, the only weapons they had, would have been of no use against the arrows of the elves that could hit a bird's eye in the dark.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 9 - Barrels Out of Bond
About the dwarves.

Then the great spider, who had been busy tying him up while he dozed, came from behind him and came at him. He could only see the thing's eyes, but he could feel its hairy legs as it struggled to wind its abominable threads round and round him.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
Bilbo is attacked by a spider

Then Thorin stepped up and drew the key on its chain from round his neck. He put it to the hole. It fitted and it turned! Snap! The gleam went out, the sun sank, the moon was gone, and evening sprang into the sky.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 11 - On the Doorstep
On Durin's Day.

There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a
huge head, and armed goblins were standing round him carrying the axes and
the bent swords that they use.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 4 - Over Hill and Under Hill

There indeed lay Thorin Oakenshield, wounded with many wounds, and his rent armour and notched axe were cast upon the floor.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 18 - The Return Journey

There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 18 - The Return Journey
Quoted: Thorin

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 4 - Over Hill and Under Hill
Quoted: Thorin

There was a buzzing and a whirring and a droning in the air. Bees were busy everywhere. And such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them. ... They were bigger than hornets. The drones were bigger than your thumb, a good deal, and the band of yellow on their deep black bodies shone like fiery gold.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 7 - Queer Lodgings
About the bees of Beorn.

There was a most special greedy, strong and wicked worm called Smaug.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party
About the dragon.

There were moths fluttering about, and the light became very dim, for the moon had not risen.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 3 - A Short Rest

They sat long at the table with their wooden drinking bowls filled with mead.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 7 - Queer Lodgings
About Bilbo and the dwarves when they visit Beorn.

They were a kind of "purple emperor", a butterfly that loves the tops of oak-woods, but these were not purple at all, they were a dark dark velvety black without any markings to be seen.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
Bilbo looking at butterflies

Thorin wielded his axe with mighty strokes, and nothing seemed to harm him.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 17 - The Clouds Burst
About Thorin fighting.

Though he was only a black shadow in the gleam of his own eyes, Bilbo could see or feel that he was tense as a bowstring, gathered for a spring.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 5 - Riddles in the Dark
About Gollum.

Under the Mountain dark and tall
the King has come unto his hall!
His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread,
And ever so his foes shall fall.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 15 - The Gathering of the Clouds
Part of a song by the dwarves.

We are getting near. We are on the edge of his bee-pastures.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit - Chapter 7 - Queer Lodgings
Quoted: Gandalf
Talking about Beorn

What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?

J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: The Hobbit – Chapter 1 – An unexpected party
Quoted: Gandalf