Rudyard Kipling Quotes

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!from Gentleman Rankers

~ Rudyard Kipling

I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.

~ Rudyard Kipling

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

What avail is honour or a sword against a pen?

~ Rudyard Kipling

I have my own matches and sulphur, and I'll make my own hell.

~ Rudyard Kipling

The Power of the Dogby Rudyard KiplingThere is sorrow enough in the natural way From men and women to fill our day; And when we are certain of sorrow in store, Why do we always arrange for more? Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware Of giving your heart to a dog to tear. Buy a pup and your money will buy Love unflinching that cannot lie-- Perfect passion and worship fed By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head. Nevertheless it is hardly fair To risk your heart for a dog to tear. When the fourteen years which Nature permits Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits, And the vet's unspoken prescription runs To lethal chambers or loaded guns, Then you will find--it's your own affair-- But ... you've given your heart to a dog to tear. When the body that lived at your single will, With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!). When the spirit that answered your every mood Is gone--wherever it goes--for good, You will discover how much you care, And will give your heart to a dog to tear. We've sorrow enough in the natural way, When it comes to burying Christian clay. Our loves are not given, but only lent, At compound interest of cent per cent. Though it is not always the case, I believe, That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve: For, when debts are payable, right or wrong, A short-time loan is as bad as a long-- So why in--Heaven (before we are there) Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

~ Rudyard Kipling

You may kill for yourselves, and your mates,and your cubs as they need, and you can;But kill not for pleasure of killing, andSEVEN TIMES NEVER KILL MAN.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in the Pack and was not called The Demon for compliment’s sake. Shere Khan might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave mouth growling...

~ Rudyard Kipling

Like everything else in the world, it is one man's work.

~ 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

Holden went to his bungalow and began to understand that he was not alone in the world, and also that he was afraid for the sake of another, -- which is the most soul-satisfying fear known to man.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Everyone is more or less mad on one point.

~ Rudyard Kipling

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

~ Rudyard Kipling

One man in a thousand, Solomon says.Will stick more close than a brother.And it's worth while seeking him half your daysIf you find him before the other.---The Thousandth Man

~ Rudyard Kipling

Something I owe to the soil that grew--More to the life that fed--But most to Allah who gave me two Separate sides of my head. I would go without shirt or shoes, Friends, tobacco, or bread Sooner than for an instant lose Either side of my head.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

~ Rudyard Kipling

O it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and Tommy 'ow's your soul/But it's thin red line of heroes when the drums begin to roll.

~ Rudyard Kipling

It was the forty-fathom slumber that clears the soul and eye and heart, and sends you to breakfast ravening. They emptied a big tin dish of juicy fragments of fish- the blood-ends the cook had collected overnight. They cleaned up the plates and pans of the elder mess, who were out fishing, sliced pork for the midday meal, swabbed down the foc'sle, filled the lamps, drew coal and water for the cook, an investigated the fore-hold, where the boat's stores were stacked. It was another perfect day - soft, mild and clear; and Harvey breathed to the very bottom of his lungs.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Barbarians are all alike... sit up half the night to discuss anything a Roman says.

~ Rudyard Kipling

To hear is one thing, to know is another.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously - the mid-day sun always excepted. Too much work and too much energy kill a man as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink. Flirtation does not matter, because every one is being transferred, and either you or she leave the station and never return. Good work does not matter, because a man is judged by his worst output, and another man takes all the credit of his best as a rule. Bad work does not matter, because other men do worse, and incompetents hang on longer in India than anywhere else. Amusements do not matter, because you must repeat them as soon as you have accomplished them once, and most amusements only mean trying to win another person's money. Sickness does not matter, because it's all in the day's work, and if you die, another man takes over your place and your office in the eight hours between your death and burial. Nothing matters except Home-furlough and acting allowances, and these only because they are scarce. It is a slack country, where all men work with imperfect instruments, and the wisest thing is to escape as soon as you ever can to some place where amusement is amusement and a reputation worth the having.

~ Rudyard Kipling

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

~ Rudyard Kipling

Whatever he knows of his weaknesses, Private Mulvaney is wholly ignorant of his strength.

~ Rudyard Kipling

I always try to believe the best of everybody -it saves so much trouble.

~ Rudyard Kipling

One can’t prescribe books, even the best books, to people unless one knows a good deal about each individual person.

~ Rudyard Kipling

What should they know of England who only England know?

~ Rudyard Kipling

We have forty million reasons for failure but not a single excuse.

~ Rudyard Kipling

There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays and every single one of them is right.

~ Rudyard Kipling

All the people like us are We And everyone else is They.

~ Rudyard Kipling

But that is another story.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.

~ Rudyard Kipling

I keep six honest serving men. (They taught me all I know) Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbours.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Heaven grant us patience with a man in love.

~ Rudyard Kipling

All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They.

~ Rudyard Kipling

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.

~ Rudyard Kipling

I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.

~ Rudyard Kipling

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.

~ Rudyard Kipling

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

~ Rudyard Kipling

Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade.

~ Rudyard Kipling