Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Rudyard Kipling
161 quotes
“Being kissed by a man who didn't wax his moustache was like eating an egg without salt.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Story of the Gadsbys (1888), "Poor Dear Mamma".
“In the flush of the hot June prime, O'ersleek flood-tides afire, I hear him hurry the chime To the bidding of checked Desire; Till the sweated ringers tire And the wild bob-majors die. Could I wait for my turn in the godly choir? (Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not I!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men and women may sometimes, after great effort, achieve a creditable lie; but the house, which is their temple, cannot say anything save the truth of those who have lived in it.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: They," published in Traffics and Discoveries (1904)
“Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Doctor's Work, an address at Middlesex Hospital (October 1908).
“Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Power of the Dog, Stanza 1 (1909).
“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.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Puzzler, Stanza 3 (1909).
“For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Female of the Species, Stanza 1 (1911).
“For all we have and are, For all our children's fate, Stand up and take the war. The Hun is at the gate!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For All We Have and Are, Stanza 1 (1914).
“No easy hope or lies Shall bring us to our goal, But iron sacrifice Of body, will, and soul. There is but one task for all— One life for each to give. What stands if Freedom fall? Who dies if England live?”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Gods of the Copybook Headings, Stanza 1 (1919).
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech, quoted in The Times (February 15, 1923).
“Never again will I spend another winter in this accursed Bucket shop|bucketshop of a refrigerator called England.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sidney Colvin (1928).
“A people always ends by resembling its shadow.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to author and critic André Maurois c. 1930, on the subject of the transformation of Germany.
“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Something of Myself for My Friends Known and Unknown, ch. 8 (1937).
“Four things greater than all things are,— Women and Horses and Power and War.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two things greater than all things are, The first is Love, and the second War.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake, Or the way of a man with a maid; But the fairest way to me is a ship's upon the sea In the heel of the North-East Trade.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees, So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Father, Mother, and Me, Sister and Auntie say All the people like us are We, And every one else is They.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We and They, Stanza 1.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be, And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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! We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings— Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!— Our touch can alter all created things, We are everything on earth—except The Gods!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes, It will vanish and the stars will shine again, Because, for all our power and weight and size, We are nothing more than children of your brain!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 hired youths and maids that feign to love or sin In tones like rusty razor-blades to tunes like smitten tin.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Soldiers Three, The Winners (L'Envoi: What Is the Moral?), Stanza 1 (1888).
“More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Phantom 'Rickshaw (1888).
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, border, nor breed, nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Ballad of East and West (1889).
“For all we take we must pay, but the price is cruel high.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Courting of Dinah Shadd (1890).
“When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold, Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould; 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?”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Conundrum of the Workshops, Stanza 1 (1890).
“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?”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Light That Failed, ch. 11 (1890-1891).
“San Francisco is a mad city—inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people, whose women are of a remarkable beauty.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: American Notes—At the Golden Gate (1891).
“Asia is not going to be civilised after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Man Who Was (1891).
“Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro— And what should they know of England who only England know?”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The English Flag, Stanza 1 (1891).
“Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high “The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die— “The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone!” And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tomlinson, l. 7-10 (1891).
“Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed—go back with an open eye, “And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die: “That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one— “And the God that you took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I were damned of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mother o' Mine (1891).
“Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown, For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down; And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear: "A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Naulahka, ch. 5 (1892).
“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.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Gypsy Trail, Stanza 2 (1892).
“When next he came to me he was drunk—royally drunk on many poets for the first time revealed to him. His pupils were dilated, his words tumbled over each other, and he wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1893 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Finest Story in the World (1893).
“We pulled for you when the wind was against us and the sails were low. Will you never let us go?”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1893 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song of the Galley-Slaves, l. 1-2 (1893).
“When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre, He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea; An' what he thought 'e might require, 'E went an' took—the same as me!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1894 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When 'Omer Smote 'is Bloomin' Lyre, Stanza 1 (1894).
“A Nation spoke to a Nation, A Queen sent word to a Throne: ‘Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in my own. The gates are mine to open, As the gates are mine to close, And I set my house in order,' Said our Lady of the Snows.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our Lady of the Snows, Stanza 1 (1898).
“Take up the White Man's burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The White Man's Burden, Stanza 1 (1899).
“Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should, We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Lesson, Stanza 1 (1899-1902).
“It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use. We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Lesson, Stanza 8 (1899-1902).
“True. True talk,” said Kim solemnly. “Fools speak of a cat when a woman is brought to bed, for instance. I have heard them.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kim, Chapter 8 (1901).
“Men, not children or servants, tempered and taught to the end; Cleansed of servile panic, slow to dread or despise, Humble because of knowledge, mighty by sacrifice.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God gave all men all earth to love, But since our hearts are small, Ordained for each one spot should prove Belovèd over all.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sussex, Stanza 1 (1902).
“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?”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sea and the Hills, Stanza 1 (1903).