It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish (…)

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish (...)

[Samwise Gamgee; The Lord of the Rings, Bk. II, Chp. 7, The Mirror of Galadriel]

— J.R.R. Tolkien

Please note that many Tolkien-related quotes on the internet are truncated, misappropriated, wrongly attributed and/or taken out of context.

The full version of this quote is:

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish, as my old gaffer used to say. And I don’t reckon that these folk can do much more to help us, magic or no. It’s when we leave this land that we shall miss Gandalf worse, I’m thinking.’

Marcel R. Bülles

A Tolkien fan for thirty years (and more to come...) Founding chairman of the German Tolkien Society, Co-Founder of Ring*Con, Co-Founder of the ITF, host, presenter and fantasy expert