Gandalf Quotes – Gandalf is a protagonist, a wizard in the novels named The Hobbit and The Load of the Rings, written by J. R. R. Tolkien. As the bearer and the wizard of a Ring of Power, he is compassionate and has great powers but works mostly by encouraging and persuading.
He is one of the Istari order and the mentor and leader of the fellowship of the Ring. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien took the name Gandalf from the Old Norse in the Voluspa.
Possessing great knowledge, power, and traveling continually, he sets out as Gandalf the gray and focuses on the mission to counter the Dark Lord Sauron. His ring being Narya, the Ring of Fire, and is associated with Fire.
Tolkien once describes this character as an angel incarnate but later on both he and other scholars have likened this character to the NGO (Norse God Odin) in his Wanderer Guise.
Amazing Gandalf Quotes for real Inspiration and Motivation
- “Even The Very Wise Cannot See All Ends.”
- “Understand, Frodo – I Would Use This Ring From A Desire To Do Good, But Through Me… It Would Wield A Power Too Great And Terrible To Imagine!”
- “There Is Only One Lord Of The Ring. Only One Who Can Bend It To His Will. And He Does Not Share Power!”
- “Bilbo Baggins! Do Not Take Me For Some Conjurer Of Cheap Tricks! I Am Not Trying To Rob You! I’m Trying To Help You.”
- “I Do Not Ask For Pardon, Master Elrond, For The Black Speech Of Mordor May Yet Be Heard In Every Corner Of The West!”
- “All We Have To Do Is Decide What To Do With The Time That Is Given To Us.”
- “If In Doubt, Meriadoc, Always Follow Your Nose!”
- “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
- “Death Is Just Another Path – One That We All Must Take.”
- “The World Is Not In Your Books And Maps. It Is Out There.”
- “I Will Not Say Do Not Weep, For Not All Tears Are An Evil.”
- “There Are Other Forces At Work In This World, Frodo, Besides The Will Of Evil.”
- “It Is The Small Things, Everyday Deeds Of Ordinary Folk That Keeps The Darkness At Bay. Simple Acts Of Love And Kindness.”
- “Do Not Be Too Eager To Deal Out Death In Judgment.”
- “It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.”
- “I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to.”
- “I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass.The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.”
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“Something has crept, or has been driven out of dark waters under the mountains. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.”
- “It may be your task to find the Cracks of Doom; but that quest may be for others: I do not know. At any rate you are not ready for that long road yet.”
- “He is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind. That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not yet entered into his darkest dream.”
- “What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!” Let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning.”
- “He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
- “It is not the strength of the body, but the strength of the spirit.”
- “In this Music [the singing of the angels in harmony] the World was begun; for Iluvatar made visible the song of the Ainur, and they beheld it as a light in the darkness.”
- “Your time will come. You will face the same Evil, and you will defeat it.”
- “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”
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“He hated it and loved it, as he hated and loved himself.”
- “You cannot pass,” he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. “I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.”
- “Deep is the abyss that is spanned by Durin’s Bridge, and none has measured it,” said Gimli. It is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world. We should seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not hope to make one.”
- “You are wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?” With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly.” His eyes flashed and his face was lit as by a fire within. “Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.” To me it would not seem that a Steward who faithfully surrenders his charge is diminished in love or in honor.”
- “The treacherous are ever distrustful.”
- “Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”
- “Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.”
- “And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
- “Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace!”
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“Yet a treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand.”
While on the other hand, others have portrayed this character as a mentor who helps the protagonist, comparable to the Cumaean Sibyl who assisted Virgil himself in Dante’s Inferno, Aeneas in Virgil’s The Aeneid, and as a Christ-figure, a diviner.
If we take a look at the etymology of the word Gandalf, then we should say that Tolkien derived this name from Gandalfr. In Old Norse, the name means staff-elf. This is reflected over is name Tharkun that is sad to mean Staff-man one of Tolkien’s invented languages.
“Only a small part is played in great deeds by any hero.”
His first appearance was claimed in The Hobbit (1937) and the last appearance in Unfinished Tales (1980) as a Tolkien character. Here we bring some exceptional quotes about Gandalf that took his elegance in the novels and make his own fan base. You can not only get inspiration but also enjoy some effective lessons about things you face in your life.
