Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Rudyard Kipling

English Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer, Artist, Teacher of Architectural Sculpture, Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

"God gives all men, all earth to love."

"Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbors."

"He who rebukes the world is rebuked by the world."

"I always believe the best of everybody - it saves so much trouble."

"I had six honest serving men. They taught me all I knew: Their names were Where and What and When and Why and How and Who."

"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;... 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!"

"Nations have passed away and left no traces, And history gives the naked cause of it - One single simple reason in all cases; They fell because their peoples were not fit."

"Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things [money, power and fame]... and then you will know how poor you are."

"Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind."

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

"Power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."

"All the people like us are We, and every one else is They."

"Do not care overly much for wealth or power or fame, or one day you will meet someone who cares for none of these things, and you will realize how poor you have become."

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

"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: A Father's Advice to His Son - 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; If you can wait and not be tired by 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: 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; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; 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!' If you can talk with crowds 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!"

"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!"

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

"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?"

"There is but one task for all -- One life for each to give. What stands if Freedom fall?”"

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

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

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

"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."

"Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house."

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

"The Comforters - Until thy feet have trod the Road Advise not wayside folk, Nor till thy back has borne the Load Break in upon the broke. Chase not with undesired largesse Of sympathy the heart Which, knowing her own bitterness, Presumes to dwell apart. Employ not that glad hand to raise The God-forgotten head To Heaven and all the neighbours' gaze -- Cover thy mouth instead. The quivering chin, the bitten lip, The cold and sweating brow, Later may yearn for fellowship -- Not now, you ass, not now! Time, not thy ne'er so timely speech, Life, not thy views thereon, Shall furnish or deny to each His consolation. Or, if impelled to interfere, Exhort, uplift, advise, Lend not a base, betraying ear To all the victim's cries. Only the Lord can understand, When those first pangs begin, How much is reflex action and How much is really sin. E'en from good words thyself refrain, And tremblingly admit There is no anodyne for pain Except the shock of it. So, when thine own dark hour shall fall, Unchallenged canst thou say: I never worried you at all, For God's sake go away! "

"The Ballad of East and West - 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, tho' they come from the ends of the earth! "

"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."

"`We be of one blood, thou and I,' Mowgli answered, `. . . my kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry.'"

"`Let us now praise famous men' - / Men of little showing - / For their work continueth, / And their work continueth, / Broad and deep continueth, / Greater than their knowing!"

"`Confound Romance!' . . . And all unseen / Romance brought up the nine-fifteen."

"‘There is none like to me !' says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill; But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still. We be of one blood, ye and I."

"A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling."

"A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!) To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair (We called her the woman who did not care) But the fool he called her his lady fair - (Even as you or I!)"

"A healthy garden is a reflection of a healthy soul."

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

"A member of the most ancient profession in the world."

"A people always ends by resembling its shadow."

"A man's mind is wont to tell him more than seven watchmen sitting in a tower."

"A Nation spoke to a Nation,A Queen sent word to a Throne:Daughter am I in my mothers 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."

"A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."

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

"A scrimmage in a Border Station—A canter down some dark defile—Two thousand pounds of education Drops to a ten-rupee jezail— The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride, Shot like a rabbit in a ride!"

"A rag and a bone and a hank of hair."

"Adam was a gardener, and God, who made him, sees that half of all good gardening is done upon the knees."

"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."

"After violent emotion most people and all boys demand food."

"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."

"All we have of freedom - all we use or know - This our fathers bought for us, long and long ago."