Rudyard Kipling Quotes

‘There is none like to me!' says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill;
But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.

We pulled for you when the wind was against us and the sails were low.
Will you never let us go?

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.

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.

I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all i knew); Theirs names are What and Why and When And How And Where and Who.

My heart is so tired

(An unhappy childhood was not) an unsuitable preparation for my future, in that it demanded a constant wariness, the habit of observation, and the attendance on moods and tempers; the noting of discrepancies between speech and action; a certain reserve of demeanour; and automatic suspicion of sudden favours.

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law — Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail,
Lie down till the leaders have spoken—it may be fair words shall prevail.

[W]e know nothing about their life which touches so intimately the White on the one hand and the Black on the other.... Wanted, therefore, a writer from among the Eurasians, who shall write so that men shall be pleased to read a story of Eurasian life; then outsiders will be interested in the People of India, and will admit that the race has possibilities.

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?

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

For the colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady,
Are sisters under their skins.

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!