“And the first rude sketch that the world has seen
was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it art?”
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?”
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Rudyard Kipling 200
English short-story writer, poet, and novelist 1865–1936Related quotes
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
“Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,
But leave, oh! leave the light of Hope behind!”
Part II, line 375
Pleasures of Hope (1799)
Context: Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,
But leave, oh! leave the light of Hope behind!
What though my wingèd hours of bliss have been
Like angels visits, few and far between.
“The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.”
“To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.”
Hallowed Ground (1825)
Variant: To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
Context: I myself have two specimens of Ikkyu's calligraphy. One of them is a single line: "It is easy to enter the world of the Buddha, it is hard to enter the world of the devil." Much drawn to these words, I frequently make use of them when asked for a specimen of my own calligraphy. They can be read in any number of ways, as difficult as one chooses, but in that world of the devil added to the world of the Buddha, Ikkyu of Zen comes home to me with great immediacy. The fact that for an artist, seeking truth, good, and beauty, the fear and petition even as a prayer in those words about the world of the devil — the fact that it should be there apparent on the surface, hidden behind, perhaps speaks with the inevitability of fate. There can be no world of the Buddha without the world of the devil. And the world of the devil is the world difficult of entry. It is not for the weak of heart.
Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 21 (pp. 562-563)
“To live in the hearts we leave behind is to live forever.”
Source: Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
