Dwarves - what is Tolkien's attitude?

[Laitoste]

My own opinion is that dwarves don't come off looking especially bad in The Silmarillion. Yeah, Mim & the dwarves of Nogrod were pretty bad, but for the most part, they are an impressive race. They delved Nargothrond and Menegrost (for elves), fought with the elves, and just basically minded their own business. And with the fall of Doriath, quite a bit of that is due to Thingol's stupidity too, and it comes across quite clearly in the book. And dwarves weren't the rivals of elves until the fall of Doriath, and only the dwarves of Nogrod were involved. The elves look worse than the dwarves, really. Probably because there are more of them, and they had a tendency to make stupid decisions. Especially the sons of Feanor.