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

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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.’

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Marcel R. Bülles

Marcel R. Bülles is the author of thetolkienist.com, a specialist blog centering on worldwide Tolkien fandom, geekdom and research. He works as a freelance translator, journalist and writer and is the founder of the German Tolkien Society as well as a co-founder to RingCon, Europe's formerly biggest fantasy film convention. You can find him in cafés all over the world sipping an espresso blogging, writing, reading. At one point he was married to an extremely lovely French lady by the nickname of Sauron. Yes, that Sauron. He is also active with the International Tolkien Fellowship on Facebook and the Tolkien Folk on Instagram.