# Quote — J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

> Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and under the domination of the One, which was Sauron's.

- Author: [J. R. R. Tolkien](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien.md)
- Book: [The Silmarillion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion#Of_the_Rings_of_Power_and_the_Third_Age) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion/those-who-used

## More from this book

> And an end was come for the Eldar of story and of song.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion/and-an-end.md)

> Sauron gathered into his hands all the remaining Rings of Power; and he dealt them out to the other peoples of Middle-earth, hoping thus to bring under his sway all those that desired secret power beyond the measure of their kind. Seven Rings he gave to the Dwarves; but to Men he gave nine, for Men proved in this matter as in others the readiest to his will.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion/sauron-gathered-into.md)

> Though this people used still their own speech, their kings and lords knew and spoke also the Elven tongue, which they had learned in the days of their alliance, and thus they held converse still with the Eldar, whether of Eressëa or of the west-lands of Middle-earth.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion/though-this-people.md)