Rudyard Kipling: Man

Rudyard Kipling was English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Explore interesting quotes on man.

Rudyard Kipling: 400 quotes28 likes

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you’ll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

Rudyard Kipling

Often misattributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. Source: As quoted from “Interview with an Immoral,” Arthur Gordon, Reader’s Digest (July 1959). Reprinted in the Kipling Society journal, “Six Hours with Rudyard Kipling”, Vol. XXXIV. No. 162 (June, 1967) pp. 5-8. Interview took place in June, 1935 https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/pdf/KJ162.pdf Context: Looking back, I think he knew that in my innocence I was eager to love everything and please everybody, and he was trying to warn me not to lose my own identity in the process. Time after time he came back to this theme. " The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

“There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake,
Or the way of a man with a maid”

Rudyard Kipling

The Long Trail http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/volumeXI/longtrail.html, Stanza 5. Other works Context: There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake, Or the way of a man with a maid; But the fairest way to me is a ship's upon the sea In the heel of the North-East Trade.

“A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.”

Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills

Source: Plain Tales from the Hills

“They are fools who kiss and tell'--
Wisely has the poet sung.
Man may hold all sorts of posts
If he'll only hold his tongue.”

Rudyard Kipling

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”

Rudyard Kipling

“If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!”

Rudyard Kipling book The Second Jungle Book

Stanza 4.
The Second Jungle Book (1895), If— (1896)
Context: If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

“You must learn to forgive a man when he's in love. He's always a nuisance.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Light That Failed

Source: The Light That Failed

“I have seen something of this world," she said over the trays, "and there are but two sorts of women in it-- those who take the strength out of a man, and those who put it back. Once I was that one, and now I am this.”

Rudyard Kipling Kim

Source: Kim

“Yet there be certain times in a young man’s life, when, through great sorrow or sin, all the boy in him is burnt and seared away so that he passes at one step to the more sorrowful state of manhood”

Rudyard Kipling

“These are the four that are never content: that have never been filled since the dew began-
Jacala's mouth, and the glut of the kite, and the hands of the ape, and the eyes of Man.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Jungle Book

Source: The Jungle Books

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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

“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

“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

“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)