Rudyard Kipling: Quotes about the world

The Conundrum of the Workshops, Stanza 1 (1890).
Other works
Source: The Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses
Context: When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, “It's pretty, but is it Art?”

World , Art , Heart , Joy

“It is not a good fancy,' said the llama. 'What profit to kill men?'
Very little - as I know; but if evil men were not now and then slain it would not be a good world for weaponless dreamers.”

Rudyard Kipling Kim

Source: Kim

Men , World , Evil

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies.”

Rudyard Kipling

The Phantom 'Rickshaw http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/PhantomRickshaw/phantomrickshaw.html (1888).
Other works

Men , World

“It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the mongoose family is “Run and find out,” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Jungle Book

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi http://www.gutenberg.org/files/236/236-h/236-h.htm#link2H_4_0009
The Jungle Book (1894)

World , Family

“There is no middle way in this war. We do not doubt our ultimate victory any more than we doubt the justice of our cause.It is not conceivable that we should fail, for if we fail the lights of freedom go out over the whole world. They may glimmer for a little in the western hemisphere,but a Germany dominating half the world by sea and land will most certainly extinguish them in every quarter where they have hitherto shone upon mankind, so that even the traditions of freedom will pass out of remembrance. If we do our duty we shall not fail.”

Rudyard Kipling

Justice , Freedom , Light , War

“There are only two divisions in the world to-day — human beings and Germans. And the German knows it. Human beings have long ago sickened of him and everything connected with him,of all he does, says, thinks and believes.”

Rudyard Kipling

Speech at Southport, June 22, 1915. Quoted in The New York Times Current History, Volume 2; Volume 4. New York Times Company, 1917. Also quoted in Paul Piazza, Christopher Isherwood: Myth and Anti-Myth. Columbia Univesity Press, 2010 (p.217).

World , Thinking