Top 307 Quotes & Sayings by Rudyard Kipling - Page 2

Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say:- 'Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you, We will therefore pay you cash to go away.'

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

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

All we have of freedom All we use or know This our fathers bought for us Long and long ago

Follow the dream, and always the dream, and only the dream.

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.

Payday came and with it beer

War is an ill thing, as I surely know. But 'twould be an ill world for weaponless dreamers if evil men were not now and then slain.

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

Savings represent much more than mere money value. They are the proof that the saver is worth something in himself. Any fool can waste; any fool can muddle; but it takes something more of a man to save and the more he saves the more of a man he makes of himself. Waste and extravagance unsettle a man's mind for every crisis; thrift, which means some form of self-restraint, steadies it.

I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.

Believe the best of everybody.

What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue.

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

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

Delight in the little things.

There is no sin greater than ignorance.

No one thinks of winter when the grass is green.

The world is very lovely, and it's very horrible--and it doesn't care about your life or mine or anything else.

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

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.

All things considered, there are only two kinds of men in the world: those that stay at home and those that do not.

In the jungle, life and food depend on keeping your temper.

If you can meet success and failure and treat them both as impostors, then you are a balanced man, my son.

Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep... For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that an' Chuck him out, the brute! But it's Saviour of his country, when the guns begins to shoot!

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.

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!

Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.

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.

Politicians. Little Tin Gods on Wheels.

it's always best to tell the truth.

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.

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

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

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

Tis beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just IT. Some women will stay in a man's memory if they once walked down a street.

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.'

What stands if freedom fall?

Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously—the midday sun always excepted.

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.

(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.

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master.

Cat said, 'I am not a friend, and I am not a Servant. I am the Cat who walks by himself, and I wish to come into your Cave.'

Politics are not my concern.... They impressed me as a dog's life without a dog's decencies.

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.

Each dog barks in his own yard!

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

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

All sensible men are of the same religion, but no sensible man ever tells.

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;!

Never praise a sister to a sister, in the hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears, and so preparing the way for you later on. Sisters are women first, and sisters afterwards; and you will find that you do yourself harm.

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."

The American has no language, he has a dialect, slang, provincialism, accent and so forth

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same.

Let each man be judged by his deeds, I have paid my price to live with myself on the terms that I willed.

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

If you do not get what you want, it is a sure sign that you did not seriously want it.

One cannot resist the lure of Africa.

Now, don't be angry after you've been afraid. That's the worst kind of cowardice.