Great Throughts Treasury

"An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din! Yes, Din! Din! Din! You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din! Though I've belted you and flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"

"An angry skipper makes an unhappy crew."

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

"An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the bay."

"An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy."

"And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame; 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!"

"And oft-times cometh our wise Lord God, master of every trade, And tells them tales of His daily toil, of Edens newly made; And they rise to their feet as He passes by, gentlemen unafraid."

"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."

"And here come tired youths and maids that feign to love or sin"

"And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed--they know the angels are on their side: They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied; They sit at the Feet, they hear the Word, they see how truly the Promise runs; They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and--the Lord He lays it on Martha's sons!"

"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."

"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?""

"And the talk slid north, and the talk slid south With the sliding puffs from the hookah-mouth; Four things greater than all things are-- Women and Horses and Power and War."

"And what did ye look they should compass? Warcraft learned in a breath, Knowledge unto occasion at the first far view of Death? So? And ye train your horses and the dogs ye feed and prize? How are the beasts more worthy than the souls, your sacrifice? But ye said, Their valour shall show them; but ye said, The end is close. And ye sent them comfits and pictures to help them harry your foes: And ye vaunted your fathomless power, and ye flaunted your iron pride, Ere—ye fawned on the Younger Nations for the men who could shoot and ride! Then ye returned to your trinkets; then ye contented your souls With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals."

"And Ye take mine honour from me if Ye take away the sea!"

"Any fool can waste, any fool can muddle, but it takes something of a man to save, and the more he saves the more of a man does it make of him."

"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."

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

"'Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor With a hairy old crown on 'er 'ead? She 'as ships on the foam--she 'as millions at 'ome, An' she pays us poor beggars in red."

"A-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot."

"And, each in his separate star, / Shall draw the Thing as he sees it for the God of things as they are!"

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

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

"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."

"Back to the Army again, sergeant, Back to the Army again: Out o' the cold an' the rain, sergeant, Out o' the cold an' the rain."

"Being kissed by a man who didn't wax his moustache was--like eating an egg without salt."

"Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid."

"Body and spirit I surrendered whole To harsh instructors—and received a soul... If mortal man could change me through and through From all I was—What may the God not do?"

"Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again! There's no discharge in the war!"

"Brother, thy tail hangs down behind! This is the way of the Monkey-kind!"

"Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware / Of giving your heart to a dog to tear."

"But he couldn't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole."

"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! 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!"

"But that is another story."

"Call a truce, then to our labors - let us feast with friends and neighbors And be merry as the custom of our caste; For if faint and forced the laughter, and if sadness follow after, We are richer by one mocking Christmas past"

"Cities and Thrones and Powers, Stand in Time's eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die: But, as new buds put forth To glad new men, Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,"

"Could I wait for my turn in the godly choir? (Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not I!"

"Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, He travels fastest who travels alone."

"East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet."

"East of Suez, some hold, the direct control of Providence ceases; Man being there handed over to the power of the Gods and Devils of Asia, and the Church of England Providence only exercising an occasional and modified supervision in the case of Englishmen."

"But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: "It's clever, but is it Art?""

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

"But till we are built like angels, with hammer and chisel and pen, We will work for ourself and a woman, for ever and ever, Amen."

"But, through the shift of mood and mood, Mine ancient humor saves him whole The cynic devil in his blood That bids him mock his hurrying soul; That bids him flout the Law he makes, That bids him make the Law he flouts, Till, dazed by many doubts."

"Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work."

"'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse—soldier an' sailor too."

"Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their mothers."

"'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive, / An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead."

"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."

"Every one wanted to say so much that no one said anything in particular."