Riddle Quotes

“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills,
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“A box without hinges, key, or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail never clinking.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“Q: What's the difference between an enzyme and a hormone?

A: You can't hear an enzyme.”
― Dorothy Parker

“What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset.
"Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nassty little pocketsess?”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“Oh, what is brighter than the light?
What is darker than the night?
What is keener than an axe?
What is softer than melting wax?

Truth is brighter than the light,
Falsehood darker than the night.
Revenge is keener than an axe,
And love is softer than melting wax.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Princess

“If it’s zero degrees outside today and it’s supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?”
― Steven Wright

“Life may be an arcane riddle, a play with many complementary acts or an unfinished chronicle with odd sequences. Still and all, whatever we might think or do, let us above all be attentive and expectant, since everyone is waiting for the pieces to fall into place, at one time or another. ("Drunken sailor" )”
― Erik Pevernagie

“The answer to this riddle has a hole in the middle,
And some have been known to fall in it.
In tennis it's nothing, but it can be received,
And sometimes a person may win it.
Though not seen or heard it may be perceived,
Like princes or bees it's in clover.
The answer to this riddle has a hole in the middle,
And without it one cannot start over.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

“Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows itself to be this solution.”
― karl marx, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

“Stronger than iron
crueler than death
sweeter than springtime
it lives beyond breath”
― Juliet Marillier, Cybele's Secret

“10/30/38
Where do you look for someone who's never really there?
Always on a staircase but never on a stair”
― Maureen Johnson, Truly, Devious

“Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?"

"Nobody!" Annabeth yelled.

That got exactly the reaction she'd been hoping for. The monster's face turned red with rage.

"Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!"

"You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

“Live in the moment... but don't be led by the moment, or the people who belong to it.”
― J. Aleksandr Wootton, Her Unwelcome Inheritance

“Silver hidden in the gold,
Young man hidden in the old,
Laughing lord with weeping eyes,
Bring king and ring before sunrise!
-Hilarion, The Great and Terrible Quest”
― Margaret Lovett, The Great and Terrible Quest

“I never talk back. I listen and always remember your every word, so come pen or mouse, never forget that I will treasure your thoughts forever. Yours truly, Paper.”
― L.M. Fields

“What can promote innocent mirth, and I may say virtue, more than a good riddle?”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“How is the world inside your mind any less real than the one outside it?”
― Sara Ella, The Wonderland Trials

“How do people like us take off our armor?
One piece at a time.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“- Ich habe ein Rätsel, sagt Louis.
- Ich höre, lächelt die Psychologin.
- Die Armen haben es, die Reichen brauchen es, und wenn man es isst, stirbt man.
Der Psychologin fällt nichts ein.
- Es ist nichts.
- Es ist nichts?
- Nichts. Die Armen haben nichts, die Reichen brauchen nichts, und wenn man nichts isst, stirbt man.”
― Hervé Le Tellier, The Anomaly

“Joyce saw perhaps what Wittgenstein felt—that ‘Colours spur us to philosophize. [. . . They] seem to present us with a riddle, a riddle that stimulates us — not one that disturbs us.”
― Finn Fordham, Lots of Fun at Finnegans Wake: Unravelling Universals

“You came to claim Tamlin?' Amarantha said- it wasn't a question, but a challenge. 'Well, as it happens, I'm bored to tears of his sullen silence. I was worried when he didn't flinch while I played with darling Clare, when he didn't even show those lovely claws...

'But I'll make a bargain with you, human,' she said, and warning bells pealed in my mind. Unless your life depends on it, Alis had said. 'You complete three tasks of my choosing- three tasks to prove how deep that human sense of loyalty and love runs, and Tamlin is yours. Just three little challenges to prove your dedication, to prove to me, to darling Jurian, that your kind can indeed love true, and you can have your High Lord.' She turned to Tamlin. 'Consider it a favour, High Lord- these human dogs can make our kind so lust-blind that we lose all common sense. Better for you to see her true nature now.'

'I want his curse broken, too,' I blurted. She raised a brow, her smile growing, revealing far too many of those white teeth. 'I complete all three of your tasks, and his curse is broken, and we- and all his court- can leave here. And remain free forever,' I added. Magic was specific, Alis had said- that was how Amarantha had tricked them. I wouldn't let loopholes be my downfall.

'Of course,' Amarantha purred. 'I'll throw in another element, if you don't mind- just to see if you're worthy of one of our kind, if you're smart enough to deserve him.' Jurian's eye swivelled wildly, and she clicked her tongue at it. The eye stopped moving. 'I'll give you a way out girl,' she went on. 'You'll complete all the tasks- or, when you can't stand it anymore, all you have to do is answer one question.' I could barely hear her above the blood pounding in my ears. 'A riddle. You solve the riddle, and his curse will be broken. Instantaneously. I won't even need to lift my finger and he'll be free. Say the right answer, and he's yours. You can answer it at any time- but if you answer incorrectly...' She pointed, and I didn't need to turn to know she gestured to Clare.

I turned her words over, looking for traps and loopholes within her phrasing. But it all sounded right. 'And what if I fail your tasks?'

Her smile became almost grotesque, and she rubbed a thumb across the dome of her ring. 'If you fail a task, there won't be anything left of you for me to play with.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet,
And those I kiss but who trample me beneath ungrateful feet.

At times I seem to favour the clever and the fair,
But I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.

By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet,
But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat.

For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,
When I kill, I do it slow...”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“Do you know the answer to the riddle?'

He crossed his arms. 'Cheating, are you?'

'She never said I couldn't ask for help.'

'Ah, but after she had you beaten to hell, she ordered us not to help you.' I waited. But he shook his head. 'Even if I felt like helping you, I couldn't. She gives the order, and we all bow to it.' He picked a fleck of dust off his black jacket. 'It's a good thing she likes me, isn't it?'

I opened my mouth to press him- to beg him. If it meant instantaneous freedom-

'Don't waste your breath,' he said. 'I can't tell you- no one here can. If she ordered us all to stop breathing, we would have to obey that, too.' He frowned at me and snapped his fingers. The soot, the dirt, the ash vanished off my skin, leaving me as clean as if I'd bathed. 'There. A gift- for having the balls to even ask.'

I gave him a flat stare, but he motioned to the hearth.

It was spotless- and my bucket was filled with lentils.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“I would never say it- never let her hear that, even if she killed me. And if it was to be my downfall, so be it. If it would be the weakness that would break me, I would embrace it with all my heart. If this was-

For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,
When I kill, I do it slow...

That's what these three months had been- a slow, horrible death. What I felt for Tamlin was the cause of this. There was no cure- not pain, or absence, or happiness.

But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat.

She could torture me all she liked, but it would never destroy what I felt for him. It would never make Tamlin want her- never ease the sting of his rejection.

The world became dark at the borders of my vision, taking the edge off the pain.

But I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.

For so long, I had run from it. But opening myself to him, to my sisters- that had been a test of bravery as harrowing as any of my trials.

'Say it, you vile beast!' Amarantha hissed. She might have lied her way out of our bargain, but she'd sworn differently with the riddle- instantaneous freedom, regardless of her will.

Blood filled my mouth, warm as it dribbled out between my lips. I gazed at Tamlin's masked face one last time.

'Love,' I breathed, the word crumbling into a blackness with no end. A pause in Amarantha's magic. 'The answer to the riddle....' I got out, choking on my own blood, 'is... love.'

Tamlin's eyes went wide before something forever cracked in my spine.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“To my garden I thee hie---
For soon all summer's beauties die;
For lasting gems, for future frock
Seek not the soaring bee---
Look down!----the rock.”
― Jeanette Lynes, The Apothecary's Garden

“My face is full, but also slight, I pale in the bright of light, I whisper sweet to the forest owl, I kiss the air with Wolf's sad howl, Eyes follow me from sea to sea, Yet alone in this world... I will ever be.”
― Mary E. Pearson, Dance of Thieves

“A wolf is wearing a collar with a six-foot metal chain. Ten feet away, there is a chicken pen with chickens inside. The wolf manages to kill all the chickens. How?”
― R.P. Jones, Chrysalis