Rudyard Kipling Quotes (251 Quotes)

For Allah created the English mad - the maddest of all mankind

Take up the White Man's burden -- send forth the best ye breed -- go, bind your sons to exile to serve your captives need.

Brother, I go to my lair -- to die.

Never look backwards or you'll fall down the stairs.

Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor With a hairy gold crown on 'er 'ead

Teach us to delight in simple things And mirth that has no bitter springs Forgiveness free of evil done, And love to all men neath the sun.

I worked like a horse and I ate like a hog and I slept like a dead man.

All the money in the world is no use to a man or his country if he spends it as fast as he makes it. All he has left is his bills and the reputation for being a fool.

I have drunk your water and wine.

E'en so through Tropic and through Trade,
Awed by the shadow of new skies,
As we shall watch old planets fade
And mark the stranger stars arise,
So, surely, back through Sun and Cloud,
So, surely, from the outward main
By Love recalled, by God allowed,
Shall we return -- return again!

I've a head like a concertina, I've a tongue like a buttonstick, I've a mouth like an old potato, and I'm more than a little sick, But I've had my fun o' the Corp'ral's Guard I've made the cinders fly, And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drin

He is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him.

Have it jest as you've a mind to, but I've proved it time on time, If you want to change her nature you have got to give her lime.

He's an absent-minded beggar, and his weaknesses are great - But we and Paul must take him as we find him. He's out on active service, wiping something off a slate - And he's left a lot of little things behind him.

God gave all men all the earth to love but, since our hearts are so small, ordained for each, one spot to be beloved over all.

I'm sick o' the 'ole dam' business.

Not the great nor well-bespoke,
But the mere uncounted folk
Of whose life and death is none
Report or lamentation.

I am the meat of sacrifice,
The ransom of man's guilt,
For they give my life to the altar-knife
Wherever shrine is built.

Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders, If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden, You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.

Beefy face an' grubby 'and --
Law!

Down to Gehenna, or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone.

Lair-Right is the right of the Mother.

Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told anyone how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established.

For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State, they arrive at their conclusions largely inarticulate. Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none but sometimes in a smoking room, one learns why things were done.

We will blame it on the deep (for the watch must have their sleep),
And Love can come and wake us when 'tis past.

You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind, And the thresh of the deep-sea rain You have heard the song - how long how long Pull out on the trail again

But the devil whoops, as he whooped of old 'It's clever, but is it art'

But remember please, the Law by which we live, we are not built to comprehend a lie, we can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die.

Ye thought Ye are not paid to think.

It's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and Chuck him out, the brute But it's Savior of 'is country when the guns begin to shoot.

You'll never plumb the Oriental mind, and if you did, it isn't worth the toil

If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' paid in full

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Yet from his life a new life springs
Through all the hosts to come,
And Glory is the least of things
That follow this man home.

If you don't get what you want, it's a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.

He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

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

Every one wanted to say so much that no one said anything in particular.

What stands if Freedom fall Who dies if England live

We're poor little lambs who've lost our way, Baa Baa Baa We're little black sheep who've gone astray, Baa-aa-aa Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree, Damned from here to Eternity, God ha' mercy on such as we, Baa Yah Bah.

This man', said M'Turk, with conviction, is the Gadarene Swine,'

Payday came and with it beer.

The tumult and the shouting dies The captains and the kings depart.

The temper of chums, the love of your wife, and a new piano's tune --
Which of the three will you trust at the end of an Indian June?

We have had an Imperial lesson it may make us an Empire yet

If England was what England seems, And not the England of our dreams But only putty, brass, and paint, Ow wed chuck er but she aint.

Who are neither children nor gods, but men in a world of men

We must risk the wrath of the Gods!

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

Heart of man -- oh, heart of putty!