Rudyard Kipling quotes:

San Francisco is a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty.

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

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

I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.

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

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

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

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;!

The Guns, Thank God, The Guns...

Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old.

Heaven grant us patience with a man in love.

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.

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

If you can wait and not be tired of waiting, or being lied about, don't deal in lies. Or being hated, don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.

A DEAD STATESMANI could not dig: I dared not rob:Therefore I lied to please the mob.Now all my lies are proved untrueAnd I must face the men I slew.What tale shall serve me here amongMine angry and defrauded young?from EPITAPHS OF THE WAR 1914-18

(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.

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!

A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.

The python dropped his head lightly for a moment on Mowgli's shoulders. "A brave heart and a courteous tongue," said he. "They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling. But now go hence quickly with thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets and what follows it is not well that thou shouldst see.

A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, Manling.

Too much work and too much energy kill a man just as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink.

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.

If you can dream and not make dreams your master

No one accuses the gunner of maudlin affection for anything except his beasts and his weapons. He serves as least three jealous gods-his horse and all its sadlery and harness; his gun, whose least detail of efficiency is more important than men's lives; and, when these have been attended to, the never-ending mystery of his art commands him.

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins, when all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins.

This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures.

A people always ends by resembling its shadow.

He who can reach a child's heart can reach the worlds heart.

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."

This is Burma and it is unlike any land you know about.

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

Small miseries, like small debts, hit us in so many places, and meet us at so many turns and corners, that what they want in weight, they make up in number, and render it less hazardous to stand the fire of one cannon ball, than a volley composed of such a shower of bullets.

Call a truce, then, to our labors - let us feast with friends and neighbors, and be merry as the custom of our caste; for if ''faint and forced the laughter,'' and if sadness follow after, we are richer by one mocking Christmas past.

The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male. A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty. Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man; But it takes a very clever woman to manage a fool. I never made a mistake in my life; At least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards

When man has come to the Turnstiles of Night, all the creeds in the world seem to him wonderfully alike and colorless.

Our loves are not given, but only lent, At compound interest of cent per cent.

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.

And the end of the fight is tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, and the epitaph drear, "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

At two o'clock in the morning, if you open your window and listen, You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going to call the sun. And the trees in the Shadow rustle and the trees in the moonlight glisten, And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done.

Gentleman-rankers out on the spree, damned from here to Eternity.

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?'

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

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

We are the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities.

And what should they know of England who only England know?

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

It was the forty-fathom slumber that clears the soul and eye and heart, and sends you to breakfast ravening.

Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.

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

Not getting what you want either means you don't want it enough, or you have been dealing too long with the price you have to pay.

God help us for we knew the worst too young.

However the world pretends to divide itself, there are only two divisions in the world today - human beings and Germans.

All gods have good points, just as have all priests. Personally, I attach much importance to Hanuman , and am kind to his people the great gray apes of the hills. One never knows when one may want a friend.

Smells are surer than sounds and sights to make the heartstrings crack.

You sometimes see a woman who would have made a Joan of Arc in another century and climate, threshing herself to pieces over all the mean worry of housekeeping.

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

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.

No printed word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be. Not all the books on all the shelves - but what the teachers are themselves.

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.

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

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.

You must learn to forgive a man when he's in love. He's always a nuisance.

There's a Legion that never was 'listed, That carries no colours or crest, But, split in a thousand detachments, Is breaking the road for the rest.

The tumalt and shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart. Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heat. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget!

If any Question why We Died Tell them because our Father's Lied.

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

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

The motto of all the mongoose family is, "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.

The glory of the garden lies in more than meets the eye.

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

If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. The world will be yours and everything in it, what's more, you'll be a man, my son.

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

Funny how the new things are the old things.

One half of my head, from the top of my skull to the cleft of my jaw, hammers, bangs, sizzles while the other half, serene and content, looks on at the agony next door.

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

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

Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone, But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.

Nations have passed away and left no traces, And history gives the naked cause of it - One single simple reason in all cases; They fell because their peoples were not fit.

Payday came and with it beer

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

Buy a pup and your money will buy Love unflinching that cannot lie.

A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition

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

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

All kinds of magic are out of date and done away with, except in India, where nothing changes in spite of the shiny, top-scum stuff that people call 'civilization.

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

A man's mind is wont to tell him more than seven watchmen sitting in a tower.

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.

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.

This is the great world, and I am only Kim. Who is Kim?' He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate.

Body and spirit, I surrendered whole, To harsh Instructors- and received a soul.

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!

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!

A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.

Teach us delight in simple things, and mirth that has no bitter springs.

An angry skipper makes an unhappy crew.

There rise her timeless capitals of empires daily born, whose plinths are laid at midnight and whose streets are packed at morn; and here come tired youths and maids that feign to love or sin in tones like rusty razor blades to tunes like smitten tin.

TWENTY bridges from Tower to Kew - Wanted to know what the River knew, Twenty Bridges or twenty-two, For they were young, and the Thames was old And this is the tale that River told:

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

I keep six honest serving men.

Cities and Thrones and Powers Stand in Time's eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die

I have seen something of this world," she said over the trays, "and there are but two sorts of women in it-- those who take the strength out of a man, and those who put it back. Once I was that one, and now I am this.

There are gems of wondrous brightness Ofttimes lying at our feet, And we pass them, walking thoughtless, Down the busy, crowded street. If we knew, our pace would slacken, We would step more oft with care, Lest our careless feet be treading To the earth some jewel rare.

If you can walk with the crowd and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run- Yours is the earth and everything that's in it, And-which is more-you'll be a man my son.

If the aunt of the vicar has never touched liquor, watch out when she finds the Champagne.

We have learned to whittle the Eden Tree to the shape of a surplice peg, We have learned to bottle our parents twain in the yelk of an addled egg. We know that the tail must wag the dog, for the horse is drawn by the cart, But the devil whoops, as he whooped of old; It's clever, but is it art?

Four things greater than all things are Women and horses and power and War.

Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves. And good luck and strong white teeth go with noble children that they may never forget the hungry in this world.

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!

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

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

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

If I were hanged on the highest hill, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine! I know whose love would follow me still Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!

Everyone is more or less mad on one point.

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

...he will be our friend for always and always and always.