The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1937), 300

Some of my favorite quotes from The Hobbit

“Good Morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. “What do you mean?” he said. “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?” “All of them at once,” said Bilbo. (2, 4)
We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! (3, 4)
He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. (5, 8)
As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. (11)
He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment. (13)
There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself. (14)
You will have to manage without pocket-handkerchiefs, and a good many other things, before you get to the journey’s end. (22)
Bilbo knew it. He had read of a good many things he had never seen or done. (26)
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something (or so Thorin said to the young dwarves). You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. (45)
“Go back?” he thought. “No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!” (55)
on, on, until he was tireder than tired. (55)
It is a fair morning with little wind. What is finer than flying?” (86)
“Do we really have to go through?” groaned the hobbit. “Yes, you do!” said the wizard, “if you want to get to the other side. You must either go through or give up your quest. (104)
There are no safe paths in this part of the world. (104)
Knowing the truth about the vanishing did not lessen their opinion of Bilbo at all; for they saw that he had some wits, as well as luck and a magic ring—and all three are very useful possessions. (124)
Bilbo, however, did not feel nearly so hopeful as they did. He did not like being depended on by everyone, and he wished he had the wizard at hand. (131)
He was in the dark tunnel floating in icy water, all alone—for you cannot count friends that are all packed up in barrels. (137)
Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait. (~162)
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. (163)
His rage passes description—the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted. (163)
“Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!” he said to himself, and it became a favourite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb. (169)
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. (217)
“I wish now only to be in my own armchair!” he said. (221)
"Of course!" said Gandalf. "And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

Note:

Page references from the 75th anniversary Kindle edition
Second page reference from 2012 Del Rey Mass Market Edition

Created: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2024-11-09-Sat