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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

“We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

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

Men , Painting

“Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,
It will vanish and the stars will shine again,
Because, for all our power and weight and size,
We are nothing more than children of your brain!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Secret of the Machines, Stanza 8.
Other works

Children , Star

“God gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Belovèd over all.”

Rudyard Kipling

Sussex http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p1/sussex.html, Stanza 1 (1902).
Other works

Love , Men , God , Heart

“Being kissed by a man who didn't wax his moustache was like eating an egg without salt.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Story of the Gadsbys

The Story of the Gadsbys (1888), "Poor Dear Mamma".
Other works

Kiss

“By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
“Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!””

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

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

Girl , Thinking , Tree , Sea

“E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive
An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

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

Dead

“Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need.”

Rudyard Kipling The White Man's Burden

The White Man's Burden, Stanza 1 (1899).
Other works

“Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."”

Rudyard Kipling

The Naulahka http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/Naulahka/index.html, ch. 5 (1892).
Other works

Health , Smile , Fools , Fight

“We're poor little lambs who've lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We're little black sheep who've gone astray,
Baa—aa—aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Gentlemen-Rankers, refrain
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

God , Way

“… it's always best to tell the truth.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Gardener (1925) .
Other works

Truth

“Never again will I spend another winter in this accursed bucketshop of a refrigerator called England.”

Rudyard Kipling

Letter to Sidney Colvin (1928).
Other works

Winter

“Oh the road to Mandalay
Where the flyin'-fishes play
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer
China 'crost the Bay!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Mandalay.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Fish

“Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work.”

Rudyard Kipling

A Doctor's Work, an address at Middlesex Hospital (October 1908).
Other works

Rudyard Kipling quote: “Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid.”

“Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Light That Failed http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/TheLightThatFailed/index.html, ch. 11 (1890-1891).
Other works

Thinking

“Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments, an' a man can raise a thirst.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

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

“That's the secret. 'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walk down a street.”

Rudyard Kipling

Mrs. Bathurst http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/TrafficsDiscoveries/bathurst.html (1904).
Other works

Secret , Beauty , Memory

“Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro—
And what should they know of England who only England know?”

Rudyard Kipling

The English Flag, Stanza 1 (1891).
Other works

World

“Many religious people are deeply suspicious. They seem—for purely religious purposes, of course—to know more about iniquity than the unregenerate.”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

Watches of the Night.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)

People

“I've just read that I'm dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.”

Rudyard Kipling

Letter to a magazine that had mistakenly published the announcement of his death.
Quoted by: Ashwin Sanghi, 13 STEPS TO BLOODY GOOD LUCK https://books.google.nl/books?id=MYU2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT94&lpg=PT94&dq=rudyard+kipling+%22read+that+I%27m+dead%22&source=bl&ots=hd9xVJsJRN&sig=9Cd4oIYC1gLU-VufOCjVL3z4YDc&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKvIKa1qzMAhUBuBoKHbftAo4Q6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=rudyard%20kipling%20%22read%20that%20I'm%20dead%22&f=false, westland ltd, 2014

Reading , Dead , Forgetting

“Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor
With a hairy gold crown on 'er 'ead?
She 'as ships on the foam—she 'as millions at 'ome,
An' she pays us poor beggars in red.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

The Widow at Windsor, Stanza 1.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

“A Nation spoke to a Nation,
A Queen sent word to a Throne:
‘Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own.
The gates are mine to open,
As the gates are mine to close,
And I set my house in order,'
Said our Lady of the Snows.”

Rudyard Kipling

Our Lady of the Snows http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p1/ourladysnows.html, Stanza 1 (1898).
Other works

Housing , Daughters

“Call a truce, then, to our labours let us feast with friends and neighbours,
And be merry as the custom of our caste;
For if “faint and forced the laughter,” and if sadness follow after,
We are richer by one mocking Christmas past.”

Rudyard Kipling

Christmas in India, Stanza 5.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)

Sadness , Laughter , Past , Christmas

“Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges—
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Explorer, Stanza 2 (1903).
Other works

Waiting

“When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it—lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!”

Rudyard Kipling

L'Envoi, Stanza 1 (1896).
The Seven Seas (1896)

Lie , Faith , Painting

“Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Glory of the Garden http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/english_history/glorygarden.html, Stanza 8.
Other works

God

“Who hath desired the Sea?—the sight of salt water unbounded—
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?”

Rudyard Kipling

The Sea and the Hills, Stanza 1 (1903).
Other works

Water , Sea

“Ever the wide world over, lass,
Ever the trail held true,
Over the world and under the world,
And back at the last to you.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Gypsy Trail http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p1/gipsytrail.html, Stanza 2 (1892).
Other works

World

“Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Power of the Dog, Stanza 1 (1909).
Other works

Dogs , Sister , Tear , Heart

“There rise her timeless capitals of Empires daily born,
Whose plinths are laid at midnight, and whose streets are packed at morn;
And here come hired youths and maids that feign to love or sin
In tones like rusty razor-blades to tunes like smitten tin.”

Rudyard Kipling

Naaman's Song http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/LimitsRenewals/naamansong.html, Stanza 2.
Other works

Love , Youth

“When you've shouted "Rule Brittania": when you've sung "God Save the Queen,"
When you've finished killing Kruger with your mouth,
Will you kindly drop a shilling in my little tambourine
For a gentleman in khaki headed South?”

Rudyard Kipling

The Absent-Minded Beggar (1899)

God

“If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine.”

Rudyard Kipling

Mother o' Mine http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p3/motheromine.html (1891).
Other works

Soul

“They change their skies above them,
But not their hearts that roam!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Native-Born, Stanza 2 (1895).
The Seven Seas (1896)

Change , Heart

“San Francisco is a mad city—inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people, whose women are of a remarkable beauty.”

Rudyard Kipling

American Notes— At the Golden Gate http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/AmericanNotes/goldengate.html (1891).
Other works

Women , People , Beauty , Parting

“And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!”

Rudyard Kipling

L'Envoi, Stanza 3 (1896).
The Seven Seas (1896)

Money , God , Star , Joy

“But he couldn't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

The Mary Gloster.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Lie

“The toad beneath the harrow knows
Exactly where each tooth point goes;
The butterfly upon the road
Preaches contentment to that toad.”

Rudyard Kipling

Pagett M.P, prelude
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)

“For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it's “Saviour of 'is country” when the guns begin to shoot.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

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

Country

“And what did ye look they should compass?
Warcraft learned in a breath,
Knowledge unto occasion at the first far view of Death?
So? And ye train your horses and the dogs ye feed and prize?
How are the beasts more worthy than the souls, your sacrifice?
But ye said, “Their valour shall show them”; but ye said, “The end is close.”
And ye sent them comfits and pictures to help them harry your foes:
And ye vaunted your fathomless power, and ye flaunted your iron pride,
Ere—ye fawned on the Younger Nations for the men who could shoot and ride!
Then ye returned to your trinkets; then ye contented your souls
With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Islanders http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p1/islanders.html, l. 22-31 (1902).
Other works

Death , Men , Dogs , Fools

“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.”

Rudyard Kipling

Something of Myself for My Friends Known and Unknown, ch. 8 (1937).
Other works

Thinking , Waiting

“It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world,
Which you can read and care for just so long,
But presently you feel that you will die
Unless you get the page you're readin' done,
An' turn another—likely not so good;
But what you're after is to turn 'em all.”

Rudyard Kipling

Sestina of the Tramp-Royal, Stanza 6.
The Seven Seas (1896)

Books , World , Feeling , Thinking

““Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high
“The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die—
“The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone!”
And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone.”

Rudyard Kipling

Tomlinson, l. 7-10 (1891).
Other works

Men , Soul

“An' I learned about women from 'er.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

The Ladies, ending line to Stanzas III, IV, and V.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

Women , Learning

“I've taken my fun where I've found it;
I've rogued an' I've ranged in my time.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

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

Time

“East of Suez, some hold, the direct control of Providence ceases; Man being there handed over to the power of the Gods and Devils of Asia, and the Church of England Providence only exercising an occasional and modified supervision in the case of Englishmen.”

Rudyard Kipling Life's Handicap

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

God , Exercises

“It takes a great deal of Christianity to wipe out uncivilized Eastern instincts, such as falling in love at first sight.”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

Lispeth.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)

Love

“Two things greater than all things are,
The first is Love, and the second War.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Ballad of the King's Jest, Stanza 9
Other works

Love , War

“They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away,
An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Danny Deever, Stanza 1.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

““What are the bugles blowin' for?” said Files-on-Parade.
“To turn you out, to turn you out”, the Colour-Sergeant said.”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Danny Deever, Stanza 1.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

“For all we have and are,
For all our children's fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate!”

Rudyard Kipling

For All We Have and Are http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p1/forall.html, Stanza 1 (1914).
Other works

Fate , War , Children

“We know that the tail must wag the dog, for the horse is drawn by the cart;
But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: “It's clever, but is it Art?””

Rudyard Kipling

The Conundrum of the Workshops, Stanza 6.
Other works

Dogs , Art , Horse