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Rudyard Kipling Quotes
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Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book , Kim , and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" . His poems include "Mandalay" , "Gunga Din" , "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" , "The White Man's Burden" , and "If—" . He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature, and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.

Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed according to the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th century. George Orwell saw Kipling as "a jingo imperialist", explaining that he was "morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting". Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."

✵ 30. December 1865 – 18. January 1936   •   Other names Джозеф Редьярд Киплинг, ራድየርድ ክፕሊንግ
Rudyard Kipling photo
Rudyard Kipling: 200   quotes 28   likes

Rudyard Kipling Quotes

“A thin grey fog hung over the city, and the streets were very cold; for summer was in England.”

Rudyard Kipling

Source: The Light That Failed [Illustrated]

Summer

“They will come back, come back again,
As long as the red earth rolls.
He never wasted a leaf or a tree.
Do you think he would squander souls?”

Rudyard Kipling
Soul , Thinking , Tree

“Everyone is more or less mad on one point.”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

On the Strength of a Likeness.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)

Madness

“Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously—the midday sun always excepted.”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

Source: Plain Tales from the Hills

Sun

“Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.”

Rudyard Kipling book Soldiers Three

Soldiers Three, The Winners (L'Envoi: What Is the Moral?) http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p2/winners.html, Stanza 1 (1888).
Other works

Travel

“In the flush of the hot June prime,
O'ersleek flood-tides afire,
I hear him hurry the chime
To the bidding of checked Desire;
Till the sweated ringers tire
And the wild bob-majors die.
Could I wait for my turn in the godly choir?
(Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not I!”

Rudyard Kipling The Bell Buoy

The Bell Buoy.
Other works

Waiting

“There is none like to me!' says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill;
But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Jungle Book

Kaa's hunting.
The Jungle Book (1894)

Thinking

“If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Second Jungle Book

Stanza 3.
The Second Jungle Book (1895), If— (1896)

Loss

“And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.”

Rudyard Kipling The Betrothed

The Betrothed, Stanza 25.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)
Variant: And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

“We pulled for you when the wind was against us and the sails were low.
Will you never let us go?”

Rudyard Kipling

Song of the Galley-Slaves http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p4/galleyslaves.html, l. 1-2 (1893).
Other works

“Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be,
And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Prairie http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p2/prairie.html, Stanza 5.
Other works

“I've taken my fun where I've found it,
An' now I must pay for my fun,
For the more you 'ave known o' the others
The less will you settle to one.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

The Ladies, Stanza VII.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

“We have fed our sea for a thousand years
And she calls us, still unfed,
Though there's never a wave of all her waves
But marks our English dead.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Song of the Dead http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/volumeXI/songdead.html, II, Stanza 1 (1896).
The Seven Seas (1896)

Sea , Dead

“The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool!”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

Three and—an Extra.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)

Fools

“When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail,
Lie down till the leaders have spoken—it may be fair words shall prevail.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Second Jungle Book

The Law of the Jungle, Stanza 6.
The Second Jungle Book (1895)

Lie

“True. True talk,” said Kim solemnly. “Fools speak of a cat when a woman is brought to bed, for instance. I have heard them.”

Rudyard Kipling Kim

Kim, Chapter 8 (1901).
Other works

Fools , Cats

“Take your friend away. He has done with Hanuman, but Hanuman has not done with him.”

Rudyard Kipling Life's Handicap

The Mark of the Beast.
Life's Handicap (1891)

“Men, not children or servants, tempered and taught to the end;
Cleansed of servile panic, slow to dread or despise,
Humble because of knowledge, mighty by sacrifice.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Islanders, l. 55-57.
Other works

Men , Children , Knowledge

“For to admire an' for to see,
For to be'old this world so wide—
It never done no good to me,
But I can't drop it if I tried!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

For to Admire, Stanza 2.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

World

“Cities and Thrones and Powers,
Stand in Time's eye,
Almost as long as flowers,
Which daily die:
But, as new buds put forth
To glad new men,
Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,
The Cities rise again.”

Rudyard Kipling

Cities and Thrones and Powers, Stanza 1 (1906).
Puck of Pook's Hill 1906

Men , Flowers , Time

“Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
This is the way of the Monkey-kind!”

Rudyard Kipling book The Jungle Book

Road-Song of the Bandar-Log.
The Jungle Book (1894)

Way

“Body and spirit I surrendered whole
To harsh instructors—and received a soul…
If mortal man could change me through and through
From all I was—What may the God not do?”

Rudyard Kipling

The Wonder
Epitaphs of the War (1914-1918) (1918)

God , Soul , Change

“From little towns in a far land we came,
To save our honour and a world aflame.
By little towns in a far land we sleep,
And trust the world we won for you to keep.”

Rudyard Kipling

Canadian Memorial (2).
Epitaphs of the War (1914-1918) (1918)

World , Sleep

“Men and women may sometimes, after great effort, achieve a creditable lie; but the house, which is their temple, cannot say anything save the truth of those who have lived in it.”

Rudyard Kipling

"They," published in Traffics and Discoveries (1904)
Other works

Women , Men , Truth , Lie

“God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!”

Rudyard Kipling Recessional

Stanza 1.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886), Recessional

God , Forgetting

“To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,
To my brethren in their sorrow overseas,
Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely crammed,
And a trooper of the Empress, if you please.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Gentlemen-Rankers, Stanza 1.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Singing

“We have done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth,
We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung,
And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth.
God help us, for we knew the worst too young!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Gentlemen-Rankers, Stanza 4.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Love , God , Truth , Youth

“If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law —
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!”

Rudyard Kipling Recessional

Stanza 4.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886), Recessional

God , Law , Forgetting

“I've taken my fun where I've found it;
I've rogued an' I've ranged in my time;
I've 'ad my pickin' o' sweet'earts,
An' four o' the lot was prime.
One was an 'arf-caste widow,
One was a woman at Prome,
One was the wife of a jemadar-sais,
An' one is a girl at 'ome.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Ladies, Stanza 1 (1895).
The Seven Seas (1896)

Girl , Time

“So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Fuzzy-Wuzzy, Stanza 1.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

“Back to the Army again, sergeant,
Back to the Army again:
Out o' the cold an' the rain, sergeant,
Out o' the cold an' the rain.”

Rudyard Kipling

Back to the Army Again, refrain (1894).
The Seven Seas (1896)

“For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State,
They arrive at their conclusions—largely inarticulate.
Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none:
But sometimes in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Puzzler http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p2/puzzler.html, Stanza 3 (1909).
Other works

Confidence , Motivation , Learning

“… scandals are only increased by hushing them up.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Gardener (1925) .
Other works

“A people always ends by resembling its shadow.”

Rudyard Kipling

Said to author and critic André Maurois c. 1930, on the subject of the transformation of Germany.
Quoted in Maurois, The Art of Writing, “The Writer's Craft,” sct. 2 (1960).
Other works

People

“Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.”

Rudyard Kipling

A Tree Song,
Puck of Pook's Hill 1906

Tree , Sun

“For you all love the screw-guns the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we take tea with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do—hoo! hoo!
Jest send in your Chief an' surrender it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You may hide in the caves, they'll be only your graves, but you can't get away from the guns!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Screw-Guns, Stanza 6.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Love , Fight , Tea

“Now these are the Laws of the jungle, and many and mighty are they;
But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is—Obey!”

Rudyard Kipling book The Second Jungle Book

The Law of the Jungle, Stanza 19.
The Second Jungle Book (1895)

Law

“Four things greater than all things are,—
Women and Horses and Power and War.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Ballad of the King's Jest, Stanza 4
Other works

Women , War , Horse

“So I'll meet 'im later on
At the place where 'e is gone—
Where it's always double drill and no canteen.
'E'll be squattin' on the coals
Givin' drink to poor damned souls,
An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!
Yes, Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Though I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Gunga Din, Stanza 5.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Soul , Hell , Drink

“When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,
Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier…”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Young British Soldier, Stanza 9.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

“Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark—
Brandy for the Parson,
'Baccy for the Clerk.
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie—
Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by!”

Rudyard Kipling

A Smuggler's Song.
Puck of Pook's Hill 1906

Lie , Question

“Never praise a sister to a sister, in the hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears, and so preparing the way for you later on. Sisters are women first, and sisters afterwards; and you will find that you do yourself harm.”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

False Dawn.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)

Women , Hope , Way , Sister

“When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre,
He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea;
An' what he thought 'e might require,
'E went an' took—the same as me!”

Rudyard Kipling

When 'Omer Smote 'is Bloomin' Lyre http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/volumeXI/omersmote.html, Stanza 1 (1894).
Other works

Men , Singing , Sea

“It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use.
We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Lesson, Stanza 8 (1899-1902).
Other works

Failure

“For the colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady,
Are sisters under their skins.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

The Ladies, Stanza VIII.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Sister

“If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier…”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Young British Soldier, Stanza 12.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Lie , Support , Waiting , Fight

“I have written the tale of our life
For a sheltered people's mirth,
In jesting guise—but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.”

Rudyard Kipling

Prelude Stanza 3.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)

Life , People

“The Liner she's a lady, an' she never looks nor 'eeds—
The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, an' 'e gives 'er all she needs;
But, oh, the little cargo-boats, that sail the wet seas roun',
They're just the same as you an' me a-plyin' up an' down!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Liner She's a Lady, Stanza 1 (1895).
The Seven Seas (1896)

War , Sea

“E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse—soldier an' sailor too.”

Rudyard Kipling

"Soldier an' Sailor Too", Stanza 2 (1896).
The Seven Seas (1896)