“...made the Dwarves even as they still are, because the forms of the Children who were to come were unclear to his mind,...”.

“...therefore the creatures of thy hand and mind can live only by that being [i.e., Aulë’s own being], moving when thou thinkest to move them, and if thy thought be elsewhere, standing idle.”

“ ...yet the making of things is in my heart from my own making by thee.”

“Eru is merciful. Now I see that thy heart rejoiceth, as indeed it may; for thou hast received not only forgiveness but bounty. Yet because thou hiddest this thought from me until its achievement, thy children will have little love for the things of my love. They will love first the things made by their hands, as doth their father. ...”

“But why dost thou ask, for thou hadst no need of the teaching of Aulë?”

“Nonetheless they will have need of wood, said Aulë, and he went on with his smith-work.”

'Caves! The Caverns of Helm's Deep! Happy was the chance that drove me there! It makes me weep to leave them.'
'But do not tell all your kindred...one family of busy Dwarves with hammer and chisel might mar more than they made.'
'No, you do not understand...no Dwarf could be unmoved by such loveliness...do you cut down groves of blossoming trees in the springtime for firewood? We would tend these glades of living stone, not quarry them.'(The Two Towers, The Road to Isengard).

“All my works are dear to me. Is it not enough that Melkor should mar so many?”