Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936
English writer and poet. See also Anonymous 

1. He's an absent-minded beggar and his weaknesses are great.
   
    
   ‘The Absent-Minded Beggar’ (1899) st. 1
2. Seek not to question other than
   The books I leave behind.
   
    
   ‘The Appeal’ (1940)
3. Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
   Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgement 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 earth!
   
    
   ‘The Ballad of East and West’ (1892)
4. Four things greater than all things are,—
   Women and Horses and Power and War.
   
    
   ‘The Ballad of the King's Jest’ (1892)
5. If any question why we died,
   Tell them, because our fathers lied.
   
    
   ‘Common Form’ (1919)
6. We know that the tail must wag the dog, for the horse is drawn by the cart;
   But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: ‘It's clever, but is it Art?’
   
    
   ‘The Conundrum of the Workshops’ (1892)
7. And what should they know of England who only England know?
   
    
   ‘The English Flag’ (1892)
8. I could not dig: I dared not rob:
   Therefore I lied to please the mob.
   Now all my lies are proved untrue
   And I must face the men I slew.
   What tale shall serve me here among
   Mine angry and defrauded young?
   
    
   ‘Epitaphs of the War: A Dead Statesman’ (1919)
9. The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
   
    
   ‘The Female of the Species’ (1919)
10. 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.
    
     
    ‘Fuzzy-Wuzzy’ (1892)
11. Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
    Damned from here to Eternity,
    God ha' mercy on such as we,
    Baa! Yah! Bah!
    
     
    ‘Gentlemen-Rankers’ (1892)
12. The Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
    
     
    ‘The Glory of the Garden’ (1911)
13. Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
    By singing:—‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade.
    
     
    ‘The Glory of the Garden’ (1911)
14. As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man —
    There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:
    That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
    And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
    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,
    As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
    The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
    
     
    ‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’ (1927)
15. 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!
    
     
    ‘Gunga Din’ (1892)
16. If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
    
     
    ‘If—’ (1910)
17. 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—’ (1910)
18. If you can meet with triumph and disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same.
    
     
    ‘If—’ (1910)
19. 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!
    
     
    ‘If—’ (1910)
20. There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
    And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!
    
     
    ‘In the Neolithic Age’ (1893)
21. 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.
    
     
    ‘The Islanders’ (1903)
22. When you get to a man in the case,
    They're like as a row of pins—
    For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
    Are sisters under their skins!
    
     
    ‘The Ladies’ (1896)
23. Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
    He travels the fastest who travels alone.
    
     
    L'Envoi to The Story of the Gadsbys (1890), ‘The Winners’
24. If I were damned of body and soul,
    I know whose prayers would make me whole,
    Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine.
    
     
    The Light That Failed (1891)
25. On the road to Mandalay,
    Where the flyin'-fishes play,
    An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
    
     
    ‘Mandalay’ (1892)
26. Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst.
    
     
    ‘Mandalay’ (1892)
27. ‘Have you news of my boy Jack?’
    Not this tide.
    ‘When d'you think that he'll come back?’
    Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
    
     
    ‘My Boy Jack’ (1916)
28. 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.’
    
     
    The Naulahka (1892) ch. 5
29. The toad beneath the harrow knows
    Exactly where each tooth-point goes;
    The butterfly upon the road
    Preaches contentment to that toad.
    
     
    ‘Pagett, MP’ (1886)
30. Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
    Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
    
     
    ‘The Power of the Dog’ (1909)
31. The tumult and the shouting dies—
    The captains and the kings depart—
    Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice,
    An humble and a contrite heart.
    Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
    Lest we forget—lest we forget!
    
     
    ‘Recessional’ (1897)
32. Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
    Is one with Nineveh, and Tyre!
    
     
    ‘Recessional’ (1897)
33. Such boasting as the Gentiles use,
    Or lesser breeds without the Law.
    
     
    ‘Recessional’ (1897)
34. For frantic boast and foolish word—
    Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord.
    
     
    ‘Recessional’ (1897)
35. Five and twenty ponies,
    Trotting through the dark—
    Brandy for the Parson,
    'Baccy for the Clerk;
    Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
    Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
    
     
    ‘A Smuggler's Song’ (1906)
36. Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie.
    Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
    
     
    ‘A Smuggler's Song’ (1906)
37. If blood be the price of admiralty,
    Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
    
     
    ‘The Song of the Dead’ (1896)
38. One man in a thousand, Solomon says,
    Will stick more close than a brother.
    
     
    ‘The Thousandth Man’ (1910); see Bible
39. For the sin ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!
    
     
    ‘Tomlinson’ (1892)
40. Makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep.
    
     
    ‘Tommy’ (1892 )
41. Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ‘Tommy 'ow's yer soul?’
    But it's ‘Thin red line of 'eroes’ when the drums begin to roll.
    
     
    ‘Tommy’ (1892); see Russell
42. For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ‘Chuck him out, the brute!’
    But it's ‘Saviour of 'is country’ when the guns begin to shoot.
    
     
    ‘Tommy’ (1892)
43. Of all the trees that grow so fair,
    Old England to adorn,
    Greater are none beneath the Sun,
    Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.
    
     
    ‘A Tree Song’ (1906)
44. 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.
    
     
    ‘The Vampire’ (1897) st. 1
45. 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.
    
     
    ‘What Dane-geld means’ (1911)
46. 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!
    
     
    ‘When Earth's Last Picture is Painted’ (1896)
47. When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre,
    He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea;
    An' what he thought 'e might require,
    'E went an' took—the same as me!
    
     
    ‘When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre’ (1896)
48. Take up the White Man's burden—
    Send forth the best ye breed—
    Go, bind your sons to exile
    To serve your captives' need.
    
     
    ‘The White Man's Burden’ (1899)
49. For a season there must be pain—
    For a little, little space
    I shall lose the sight of her face,
    Take back the old life again
    While She is at rest in her place.
    
     
    ‘The Widower’
50. When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains
    And the women come out to cut up what remains
    Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
    An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
    
     
    ‘The Young British Soldier’ (1892)
51. I was aware of a little grey shadow, as it might have been a snowflake seen against the light, floating at an immense distance in the background of my brain.
    Actions and Reactions (1909) ‘The House Surgeon’
52. Human nature seldom walks up to the word ‘cancer’.
    Debits and Credits (1926)
53. We be of one blood, thou and I.
    The Jungle Book (1894) ‘Kaa's Hunting’
54. The motto of all the mongoose family is, ‘Run and find out.’
    The Jungle Book (1894) ‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’
55. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.
    Just So Stories (1902) ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’
56. And he went back through the Wet Wild Woods, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.
    Just So Stories (1902) ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’
57. An Elephant's Child—who was full of 'satiable curtiosity.
    Just So Stories (1902) ‘The Elephant's Child’
58. The great grey-green, greasy, Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees.
    Just So Stories (1902) ‘The Elephant's Child’
59. I keep six honest serving-men
    (They taught me all I knew);
    Their names are What and Why and When
    And How and Where and Who.
    
     
    Just So Stories (1902) ‘The Elephant's Child’
60. He was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.
    Just So Stories (1902) ‘How the Whale got his Throat’
61. Little Friend of all the World.
    Kim's nickname
    Kim (1901) ch. 1
62. The man who would be king.
    title of short story (1888)
63. He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors.
    Many Inventions (1893) ‘The Finest Story in the World’
64. Every one is more or less mad on one point.
    Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
65. Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it takes a very clever woman to manage a fool.
    Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) ‘Three and—an Extra’
66. 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.
    
     
    The Second Jungle Book (1895) ‘The Law of the Jungle’
67. 'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walked down a street.
    Traffics and Discoveries (1904) ‘Mrs Bathurst’
68. Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
    speech, 14 February 1923
69. Power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.
    summing up Lord Beaverbrook's political standpoint as a newspaper editor; Stanley Baldwin, Kipling's cousin, subsequently obtained permission to use the phrase in a speech, 18 March 1931
    in Kipling Journal vol. 38, no. 180, December 1971