Great Throughts Treasury

"No doubt but ye are the People - your throne is above the King's. / Whoso speaks in your presence must say acceptable things."

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

"Now it is not good for the Christian's health To hustle the Aryan brown, For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles, And it weareth the Christian down. 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."

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

"Never praise a sister to a sister in the hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears."

"Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be, And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!"

"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."

"No one thinks of Winter when the grass is green."

"No easy hope or lies Shall bring us to our goal, But iron sacrifice Of body, will, and soul."

"Of all the trees that grow so fair, Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the Sun, Than Oak, and Ash and Thorn."

"Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told anyone how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established."

"Oh the road to Mandalay Where the flyin'-fishes play An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay! By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me; For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!… Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, Where there aren't no Ten Commandments, an' a man can raise a thirst."

"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! And the Glory of the Garden, it shall never pass away!"

"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."

"Oh, its Tommy this, an Tommy that, an Tommy, go away;But its Thank you, Mister Atkins, when the band begins to playThe band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,Oh, its Thank you, Mister Atkins, when the band begins to play."

"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, though they come from the ends of the earth! . . . . 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."

"Once there was The People - Terror gave it birth; Once there was The People, and it made a hell of earth! Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, oh, ye slain! Once there was The People - it shall never be again!"

"Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers, / With England's own coal, up and down the salt seas?"

"On the road to Mandalay, / Where the flyin'-fishes play, / An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!"

"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."

"One good quote is worth a book."

"Over all good things certain, this is sure indeed, Suffer not the old King, for we know the breed."

"Payday came and with it beer"

"Pass the hat for your credit's sake, and pay- pay - pay!"

"Politicians. Little Tin Gods on Wheels."

"Pleasant the snaffle of courtship, improving the manners and carriage; but the colt who is wise will abstain from the terrible throw bit of Marriage."

"Puck of Pook's Hill - She has no strong white arms to fold you, But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you— Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you."

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

"Prize, oh! Haul! shouted Dan, but the shout ended in a shrill, double shriek of horror, for out of the sea came - the body of the dead Frenchman buried two days before! The hook had caught him under the right armpit, and he swayed, erect and horrible, head and shoulders above water."

"San Francisco is a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty."

"Scandals are only increased by hushing them up."

"Pull out, pull out on the Long Trail - the trail that is always new!"

"She was as immutable as the hills. But not quite so green."

"She read a little of it. I give her review verbatim:—Oh, your book? It's all about those how-wid ajahs. I didn't understand it."

"Sing, for faith and hope are high - None so true as you and I - Sing the Lovers' Litany: "Love like ours can never die!""

"Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely cra mmed, And a trooper of the Empress, if you please."

"Small miseries, like small debts, hit us in so many places, and meet us at so many turns and corners, that what they want in weight, they make up in number, and render it less hazardous to stand the fire of one cannon ball, than a volley composed of such a shower of bullets."

"So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan; You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man… 'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead."

"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behin the Ranges—Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die— The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone! And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone… Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed—go back with an open eye, And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die: That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one—And the God that you took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!"

"Stiff-necked Glasgow beggar! I've heard he's prayed for my soul, / But he couldn't lie if you paid him, and he'd starve before he stole."

"Still stands thine ancient sacrifice - An humble and a contrite heart."

"Success and failure are the same impostor."

"Such boastings as the Gentiles use, / Or lesser breeds without the Law."

"Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves."

"Take of English earth as much As either hand may rightly clutch. In the taking of it breathe Prayer for all who lie beneath."

"Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man, but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool. "

"Take up the White Man's burden - / And reap his old reward: / The blame of those ye better, / The hate of those ye guard."

"Take your friend away. He has done with Hanuman, but Hanuman has not done with him."

"Teach us delight in simple things, and mirth that has no bitter springs"