Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Profoundly inspirational Rudyard Kipling quotes will brighten up your day and make you feel ready to take on anything.
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Famous Rudyard Kipling Quotes
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
If you give someone more than they can do, they will do it. If you give them only what they can do, they will do nothing. – Rudyard Kipling
When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey. – Rudyard Kipling
Let it be clearly understood that the Russian is a delightful person till he tucks in his shirt. As an Oriental he is charming. It is only when he insists on being treated as the most easterly of western peoples instead of the most westerly of easterns that he becomes a racial anomaly extremely difficult to handle. – Rudyard Kipling
Literature is a splendid mistress, but a bad wife. – Rudyard Kipling
The jungle speaks to me because I know how to listen. – Rudyard Kipling
Single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints. – Rudyard Kipling
A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition – Rudyard Kipling
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim. – Rudyard Kipling
No one thinks of winter when the grass is green. – Rudyard Kipling
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 sixty 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! – Rudyard Kipling
What stands if Freedom fail? What dies of England live? – Rudyard Kipling
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
For it’s guns this and guns that, and chuck ’em out, the brutes, But they’re the Savior of our loved ones when the thugs begin to loot. – Rudyard Kipling
Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves. – Rudyard Kipling
For all we take we must pay, but the price is cruel high. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
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! – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
I have eaten your bread and salt. I have drunk your water and wine. The deaths ye died I have watched beside And the lives ye led were mine. – Rudyard Kipling
If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. – Rudyard Kipling
Be slow to judge for we know little of what has been done and nothing of what has been resisted. – Rudyard Kipling
Smells are surer than sounds or sights To make your heartstrings crack. – Rudyard Kipling
it’s always best to tell the truth. – Rudyard Kipling
You may talk o’ gin and beer When you’re quartered safe out ‘ere, An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it; But when it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water, An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ‘im that’s got it. – Rudyard Kipling
I worked like a horse and I ate like a hog and I slept like a dead man. – Rudyard Kipling
Teach us delight in simple things, and mirth that has no bitter springs. – Rudyard Kipling
Funny how the new things are the old things. – Rudyard Kipling
It’s clever, but is it Art? – Rudyard Kipling
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
How can you do anything until you have seen everything,or as much as you can? – Rudyard Kipling
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 – Rudyard Kipling
I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble. – Rudyard Kipling
Till the master of all good workmen shall set us to work anew. – Rudyard Kipling
A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, Manling. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
Meddling with another man’s folly is always thankless work. – Rudyard Kipling
Four things greater than all things are Women and horses and power and War. – Rudyard Kipling
Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously-the midday sun always excepted. – Rudyard Kipling
There was a young man of Quebec Who was frozen in snow to his neck, When asked, ‘Are you Friz?’ He replied, ‘Yes I is, But we don’t call this cold in Quebec.’ – Rudyard Kipling
Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run. – Rudyard Kipling
There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this. – Rudyard Kipling
Who has smelled the woodsmoke at twilight, who has seen the campfire burning, who is quick to read the noises of the night? – Rudyard Kipling
No doubt but ye are the People – absolute, strong and wise; Whatever your hear has desired ye have not withheld from your eyes. On your own heads, in your own hands, the sin and the saving lies! – Rudyard Kipling
Both triumph and disaster are impostors. – Rudyard Kipling
Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work. – Rudyard Kipling
A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path, for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty. – Rudyard Kipling
Payday came and with it beer – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
I’ve a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land! – Rudyard Kipling
San Francisco is a mad city – inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty. – Rudyard Kipling
We be of one blood, ye and I. – Rudyard Kipling
He will be our friend for always and always and always. – Rudyard Kipling
One can’t prescribe books, even the best books, to people unless one knows a good deal about each individual person. If a man is keen on reading, I think he ought to open his mind to some older man who knows him and his life, and to take his advice in the matter, and above all, to discuss with him the first books that interest him. – Rudyard Kipling
I have my own matches and sulphur, and I’ll make my own hell. – Rudyard Kipling
God gives all men all earth to love, but since man’s heart is small, ordains for each one spot shall prove belov?d over all. – Rudyard Kipling
Being kissed by a man who didn’t wax his moustache was-like eating an egg without salt. – Rudyard Kipling
All we have of freedom All we use or know This our fathers bought for us Long and long ago – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
Politics are not my concern…. They impressed me as a dog’s life without a dog’s decencies. – Rudyard Kipling
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!’ – Rudyard Kipling
Borrow trouble for yourself, if that’s your nature, but don’t lend it to your neighbours. – Rudyard Kipling
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: ‘If you don’t work you die.’ – Rudyard Kipling
If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting … if you can dream, and not make dreams your master; if you can think, and not make thoughts your aim; if you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same; … yours is the earth and everything that’s in it… – Rudyard Kipling
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame, But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star, Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are! – Rudyard Kipling
Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
We are the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
Bite on the bullet, old man, and don’t let them think you’re afraid. – Rudyard Kipling
Go softly by that river side Or when you would depart, You’ll find its every winding tied; And knotted round your heart. – Rudyard Kipling
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden, You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden. – Rudyard Kipling
This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures. – Rudyard Kipling
It was the forty-fathom slumber that clears the soul and eye and heart, and sends you to breakfast ravening. They emptied a big tin dish of juicy fragments of fish- the blood-ends the cook had collected overnight. They cleaned up the plates and pans of the elder mess, who were out fishing, sliced pork for the midday meal, swabbed down the foc’sle, filled the lamps, drew coal and water for the cook, an investigated the fore-hold, where the boat’s stores were stacked. It was another perfect day – soft, mild and clear; and Harvey breathed to the very bottom of his lungs. – Rudyard Kipling
I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all i knew); Theirs names are What and Why and When And How And Where and Who. – Rudyard Kipling
On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin’-fishes play, An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer; China ‘crost the Bay! – Rudyard Kipling
If I were dammed of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, mother o’ mine o mother o’ mine. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
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.’ – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors. – Rudyard Kipling
There’s no jealousy in the grave. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it. – Rudyard Kipling
Of all the trees that grow so fair Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the Sun Than Oak, and Ash and Thorn. – Rudyard Kipling
Cities and Thrones and Powers Stand in Time’s eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die – Rudyard Kipling
Too much work and too much energy kill a man just as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink. – Rudyard Kipling
He who faces no calamity gains no courage. – Rudyard Kipling
Humble because of knowledge; mighty by sacrifice. – Rudyard Kipling
And that is called paying the Dane-geld; but we’ve proved it again and again, that if once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
Many religious people are deeply suspicious. They seem, for purely religious purposes, of course, to know more about iniquity than the unregenerate. – Rudyard Kipling
Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was: O my Best Beloved, when the tame animals were wild. – Rudyard Kipling
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. – Rudyard Kipling
God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
The American has no language, he has a dialect, slang, provincialism, accent and so forth – Rudyard Kipling
San Francisco has only one drawback-’tis hard to leave. – Rudyard Kipling
We’re all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding. – Rudyard Kipling
The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so! To my own Gods I go. It may be they shall give me greater ease than your cold Christ and tangled Trinities. – Rudyard Kipling
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made By singing ‘Oh how wonderful’ and sitting in the shade, While better men than we go out, and start their working lives By grubbing weeds from garden paths with broken dinner knives. – Rudyard Kipling
At twenty the things for which one does not care a damn should, properly, be many. – Rudyard Kipling
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. – Rudyard Kipling
However the world pretends to divide itself, there are only two divisions in the world today – human beings and Germans. – Rudyard Kipling
One learns more from a good scholar in a rage than from a score of lucid and laborious drudges. – Rudyard Kipling
Our loves are not given, but only lent, At compound interest of cent per cent. – Rudyard Kipling
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
Beware of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are. – Rudyard Kipling
Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone, But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown. – Rudyard Kipling
Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade. – Rudyard Kipling
Daughter am I in my mother’s house, but mistress in my own. – Rudyard Kipling
A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. – Rudyard Kipling
One cannot resist the lure of Africa. – Rudyard Kipling
But he couldn’t lie if you paid him and he’d starve before he stole. – Rudyard Kipling
Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old. – Rudyard Kipling
All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They. – Rudyard Kipling
