97 Rudyard Kipling Quotes That Will Inspire You To Think

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

  

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

  

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

Never

  

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

  

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;!

Yourself

  

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

Never

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.

Me

  

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

Never

  

Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.

Like

  

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.

Me

  

I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

  

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

  

No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Yourself

  

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

  

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

Life

  

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.

  

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

Singing

  

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

  

My heart is so tired

  

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

  

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

Life

  

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.

  

There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this.

  

All the people like us are we, and everyone else is they.

Like

  

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

  

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

  

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.

  

Of all said words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these it might have been.

  

And the first rude sketch that the world has seen was joy to his mighty heart, Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it art?

  

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

  

I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. The other places don’t count. Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages

Never

  

How can you do anything until you have seen everything,or as much as you can?

  

I have my own matches and sulphur, and I'll make my own hell.

  

There is but one task for all -- One life for each to give. What stands if Freedom fall?" [For All We Have and Are]

Life

  

She is intensely human, and lives to look upon life.

Life

  

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:

  

We be of one blood, ye and I

  

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

  

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

  

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

Peace , Time

  

Yet there be certain times in a young man’s life, when, through great sorrow or sin, all the boy in him is burnt and seared away so that he passes at one step to the more sorrowful state of manhood

Life

  

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.

Never

  

They will come back, come back again, As long as the red earth rolls. He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think he would squander souls?

Never , Think

  

A thin grey fog hung over the city, and the streets were very cold; for summer was in England.

  

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

  

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

  

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

  

Everyone is more or less mad on one point.

  

It is not a good fancy,' said the llama. 'What profit to kill men?' Very little - as I know; but if evil men were not now and then slain it would not be a good world for weaponless dreamers.

  

Something I owe to the soil that grew— More to the life that fed— But most to Allah who gave me two Separate sides to my head.

Life , Me

  

They are fools who kiss and tell'-- Wisely has the poet sung. Man may hold all sorts of posts If he'll only hold his tongue.

  

God help us for we knew the worst too young.

  

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.

  

Thou art of the Jungle and not of the Jungle. And I am only a black panther. But I love thee, Little Brother.

  

If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim.

  

Good Lord! who can account for the fathomless folly of the public?

  

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.

  

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

  

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

  

For Kim did nothing with an immense success.

  

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

  

One man in a thousand, Solomon says. Will stick more close than a brother. And it's worth while seeking him half your days If you find him before the other. ---The Thousandth Man

  

Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was: O my Best Beloved, when the tame animals were wild.

  

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

Family

  

So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward he became a man and married. But that is a story for grown-ups.

  

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

  

When the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him.

  

There's no jealousy in the grave.

  

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

  

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run- Yours is the Earth and everything in it...

  

At twenty the things for which one does not care a damn should, properly, be many.

  

It takes a great deal of Christianity to wipe out uncivilised Eastern instincts, such as falling in love at first sight.

  

Many wear the robes, but few walk the Way." The Lama in Kim

  

Holden went to his bungalow and began to understand that he was not alone in the world, and also that he was afraid for the sake of another, -- which is the most soul-satisfying fear known to man.

  

One can’t prescribe books, even the best books, to people unless one knows a good deal about each individual person.

  

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;

Think

  

What is this," said the leopard,"that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?

  

I am Kim. I am Kim. And what is Kim?" His soul repeated it again and again.

  

No need to listen for the fall. This is the world's end.

  

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

  

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

  

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And hold on when there's nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!

  

When a man does good work out of all proportion to his pay, in seven cases out of nine there is a woman at the back of the virtue. The two exceptions must have suffered from sunstroke.

  

The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things,

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

You must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved.

  

Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree Damned from here to Eternity, God ha' mercy on such as we, Baa! Yah! Bah!

  

Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and ye can; But kill not for pleasure of killing, and seven times never kill Man!

Never

  

If a man can hear the truth he's spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools..........

  

Ye've a furtive look in your eye - a furtive, sneakin', poachin' look in your eye, that 'ud ruin the reputation of an archangel!

  

Cites and Thrones and Powers Stand in Time's eye Which daily die; But, as new buds put forth To glad new men, Out of the spend and unconsidered Earth, The cities will rise again