Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit Quotes

“Tempus edax rerum, usually translated “Time devours all things.”
― Corey Olsen, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

“At first, Bilbo’s longing for Bag-End was escapist: he was looking back over his shoulder, wishing he could be whisked out of this nasty adventure and returned to his land of ‘safe and comfortable things’. At some point, however, that changed. His longing for Bag-End didn’t grow less, bit it ceased to be about turning back. The Hill was no longer the starting point he wished he had never left; it had become the endpoint that he was striving to reach.”
― Corey Olsen, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

“Thorin attempts to cloak his cowardice in formal language, carefully explaining that Mr Baggins is ‘still officially their expert burglar and investigator’. He can use his own judgement in his professional capacity and, meanwhile, Thorin and the dwarves will fearlessly ‘wait in the tunnel for his report’.”
― Corey Olsen, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

“This moment when he is engaging in suave repartee with the dragon is undoubtedly Bilbo’s most fully Tookish moment in the entire book.”
― Corey Olsen, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

“Only in Chapter Three do we learn how extraordinary their luck has actually been. When Elrond reads the runes on the swords, he is able to tell them that they are not only ‘very old swords’ and powerful, but they are ‘very famous’ blades. They have names, Orcrist and Glamdring, and the latter of these actually belonged to the kind of the ancient elven city of Gondolin. This would be rather like going on vacation to India and finding in a village marketplace a sword that belonged to Alexander the Great. The odds against it are pretty staggering.”
― Corey Olsen, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

“In Rivendell, Bilbo glimpses what an actual reconciliation between his two natures might look like: a life in which he could allow himself to be swept away into songs of adventure and tragedy and delight, and yet also remain safe and comfortable.”
― Corey Olsen, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit