Rudyard Kipling

Writer

1865-12-30

Quotes by Rudyard Kipling

• Fiction is Truth's elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till some one had told a story.

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• And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of except things to eat (23).

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• All kinds of magic are out of date and done away with, except in India, where nothing changes in spite of the shiny, top-scum stuff that people call 'civilization.

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

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

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• I had come down here, not to serve God as a craftsman should, but to show my people how great a craftsman I was. They cared not.

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• There is but one task for all --One life for each to give.What stands if Freedom

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• 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.

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• There is no gift like friendship. Remember this - when you become a young man. For your fate will turn on the first true friend you make.

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

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• Mad! Quite mad!' said Stalky to the visitors, as one exhibiting strange beasts. 'Beetle reads an ass called Brownin', and M'Turk reads an ass called Ruskin; and-' 'Ruskin isn't an ass,' said M'Turk. 'He's almost as good as the Opium-Eater. He says we're children of noble races, trained by surrounding art. That means me, and the way I decorated the study when you two badgers would have stuck up brackets and Christmas cards. Child of a noble race, trained by surrounding art, stop reading or I'll shove a pilchard down your neck!

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

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

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

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• (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.

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• What is a woman that you forsake herAnd the hearth fire and the home acreTo go with that old grey widow-maker?

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• A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.

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• 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.

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• Threatened men live long.

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• I have joyfully done much evil in my life to those who have wished me evil (General Maximus)

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