Rudyard Kipling Quotes

There is no harm in a man's cub.

When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.'

Being kissed by a man who didn't wax his moustache was-like eating an egg without salt.

I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth.

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.

The jungle speaks to me because I know how to listen.

Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their mothers.

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

The cat will keep his side of the bargain. He will kill mice, and he will be kind to babies when he is in the house, just so long as they do not pull his tail too hard. But when he has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up on the Wet Wild trees or on the Wet Wild roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.

I am by nature a dealer in words, and words are the most powerful drug known to humanity.

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.

She is intensely human, and lives to look upon life.

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

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.

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

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

When a crew and a captain understand each other to the core, it takes a gale, and more than a gale, to put their ship ashore.

Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and ye can; But kill not for pleasure of killing, and seven times never kill Man!

Meddling with another man's folly is always thankless work.

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

Who has smelled the woodsmoke at twilight, who has seen the campfire burning, who is quick to read the noises of the night?

I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards.

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.

Also, we will make promise. So long as The Blood endures, I shall know that your good is mine: ye shall feel that my strength is yours: In the day of Armageddon, at the last great fight of all, That Our House stand together and the pillars do not fall.

But till we are built like angels, with hammer and chisel and pen, we will work for ourself and a woman, forever and ever, Amen.

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

God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.

He became an officer and a gentleman, which is an enviable thing.

I keep six honest serving men.

Every woman knows all about everything.

The American does not drink at meals as a sensible man should. Indeed, he has no meals. He stuffs for ten minutes thrice a day.

I have stated it plain, an' my argument's thus ( It's all one, says the Sapper) There's only one Corps which is perfect - that's us; An' they call us Her Majesty's Engineers, With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.

A Time For Prayer "In times of war and not before, God and the soldier we adore. But in times of peace and all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier slighted." -Rudyard Kipling

Any fool can waste, any fool can muddle, but it takes something of a man to save, and the more he saves the more of a man does it make of him.

Believe the best of everybody.

Both triumph and disaster are impostors.

If you hit a pony over the nose at the outset of your acquaintance, he may not love you but he will take a deep interest in your movements ever afterwards

For the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one.

This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know about.

None of the Jungle People like being disturbed.

It's clever, but is it Art?

But he couldn't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole.

The 'eathen in 'is blindness must end where 'e began. But the backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man!

We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.

On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin'-fishes play, An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer; China 'crost the Bay!

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

Those who only know England know not England.