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 imposters just the same...
‘Rewards and Fairies’ (1910) ‘If—’
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!
‘Rewards and Fairies’ (1910) ‘If—’
One man in a thousand, Solomon says, Will stick more close than a brother.
‘Rewards and Fairies’ (1910) ‘The Thousandth Man’.
They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again, And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods.
‘Rewards and Fairies’ (1910) ‘The Way through the Woods’
Who hath desired the Sea?—the sight of salt water unbounded—
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded? The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing— Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing.
‘The Sea and the Hills’ (1903)
We have fed our sea for a thousand years And she calls us, still unfed,
Though there’s never a wave of all her waves But marks our English dead:
We have strawed our best to the weed’s unrest To the shark and sheering gull.
If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid in full!
‘The Song of the Dead’ (1896)
And here the sea-fogs lap and cling And here, each warning each,
The sheep-bells and the ship-bells ring Along the hidden beach.
‘Sussex’ (1903)
God gives all men all earth to love, But since man’s heart is small, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Belovéd over all.
Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground—in a fair ground— Yea, Sussex by the sea!
‘Sussex’ (1903)
For the sin ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!
‘Tomlinson’ (1892)
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Tommy, go away’;
But it’s ‘Thank you, Mister Atkins,’ when the band begins to play.
‘Tommy’ (1892)
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)
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)
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 and I!)
‘The Vampire’ st. 1
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say:—
‘Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you, We will therefore pay you cash to go away.’
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)
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!
‘When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted’ (1896)
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)
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)
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)
Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world.
‘In Black and White’ (1888) ‘On the City Wall’
What the horses o’ Kansas think to-day, the horses of America will think tomorrow; an’ I tell you that when the horses of America rise in their might, the day o’ the Oppressor is ended.
‘The Day’s Work’ (1898) ‘A Walking Delegate’
‘We be one blood, thou and I’, Mowgli answered. ‘I take my life from thee to-night. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O Kaa.’
‘The Jungle Book’ (1894) ‘Kaa’s Hunting’
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
‘The Jungle Book’ (1894) ‘Road Song of the Bandar-Log’
Yes, weekly from Southampton, Great steamers, white and gold, Go rolling down to Rio
(Roll down—roll down to Rio!). And I’d like to roll to Rio Some day before I’m old!
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘The Beginning of the Armadilloes’
He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’
And he went back through the Wet Wild Woods, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone. But he never told anybody.
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’
One Elephant—a new Elephant—an Elephant’s Child—who was full of ’satiable curtiosity.
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘The Elephant’s Child’
Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose...’Led go! You are hurtig be!’
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘The Elephant’s Child’
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’
The cure for this ill is not to sit still, Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also, And dig till you gently perspire.
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘How the Camel got his Hump’
You must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved.
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘How the Whale got his Throat’
And the small ‘Stute Fish said in a small ’stute voice, ‘Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?’ ‘No,’ said the Whale. ‘What is it like?’ ‘Nice,’ said the small ‘Stute Fish. ‘Nice but nubbly.’
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘How the Whale got his Throat’
He had his Mummy’s leave to paddle, or else he would never have done it, because he was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.
‘Just So Stories’ (1902) ‘How the Whale got his Throat’
Little Friend of all the World.
‘Kim’ (1901) ch. 1 (Kim’s nickname)
The mad all are in God’s keeping.
‘Kim’ (1901) ch. 2
The man who would be king.
Title of story (1888)
Every one is more or less mad on one point.
‘Plain Tales from the Hills’ (1888) ‘On the Strength of a Likeness’
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’
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’
Mr Raymond Martin, beyond question, was born in a gutter, and bred in a Board-School,
where they played marbles. He was further (I give the barest handful from great store) a Flopshus Cad, an Outrageous Stinker, a Jelly-bellied Flag-flapper...and several other things which it is not seemly to put down.
‘Stalky & Co.’ (1899) p. 214
Being kissed by a man who didn’t wax his moustache was—like eating an egg without salt.
‘The Story of the Gadsbys’ (1889) ‘Poor Dear Mamma’
’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’
Power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.
Summing up Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook)’s political standpoint vis-á-vis the Daily Express, the latter having said in conversation with Kipling: ‘What I want is power. Kiss ’em one day and kick ’em the next’; in ‘Kipling Journal’ vol. 38, no. 180, December 1971, p. 6. Stanley Baldwin, Kipling’s cousin, subsequently obtained permission to use the phrase in a speech in London on 18 March 1931
11.41 Henry Kissinger 1923—
Power is the great aphrodisiac.
In ‘New York Times’ 19 January 1971, p. 12
We are the President’s men.
In M. and B. Kalb ‘Kissinger’ (1974) ch. 7
11.42 Fred Kitchen 1872-1950
Meredith, we’re in!
Catch-phrase originating in ‘The Bailiff’ (1907 stage sketch). J. P. Gallagher ‘Fred Karno’ (1971) ch. 9, p. 90
11.43 Lord Kitchener 1850-1916
You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy...In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy. Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.
Message to soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (1914), in ‘The Times’ 19 August 1914
I don’t mind your being killed, but I object to your being taken prisoner.
To the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) on his asking to be allowed to the Front during World War I, in Viscount Esher ‘Journal’ 18 December 1914
11.44 Paul Klee 1879-1940
Eine aktive Linie, die sich frei ergeht, ein Spaziergang um seiner selbst willen, ohne Ziel. Das agens ist ein Punkt, der sich verschiebt.
An active line on a walk, moving freely without a goal. A walk for walk’s sake.
‘Pedagogical Sketchbook’ (1925) p. 6
Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
‘Creative Credo’ (1920) in ‘Inward Vision’ (1958) p. 5
11.45 Friedrich Klopstock 1724-1803
God and I both knew what it meant once; now God alone knows.
In C. Lombroso ‘The Man of Genius’ (1891) pt. 1, ch. 2; also attributed to Browning, vis-á-vis Sordello, in the form ‘When it was written, God and Robert Browning knew what it meant; now only God knows’
11.46 Charles Knight and Kenneth Lyle
When there’s trouble brewing, When there’s something doing, Are we downhearted?
No! Let ’em all come!
‘Here we are! Here we are again!!’ (1914 song)
11.47 Mary Knowles 1733-1807
He gets at the substance of a book directly; he tears out the heart of it.
On Samuel Johnson, in James Boswell ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ (1934 ed.) vol. 3, p. 284 (15 April 1778)
11.48 John Knox 1505-72
Un homme avec Dieu est toujours dans la majoritè.
A man with God is always in the majority.
Inscription on the Reformation Monument, Geneva
The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.
Title of Pamphlet (1558)
11.49 Ronald Knox 1888-1957
When suave politeness, tempering bigot zeal, Corrected I believe to One does feel.
‘Absolute and Abitofhell’ (1913)
Evangelical vicar, in want of a portable, second-hand font, would dispose, for the same, of a portrait, in frame, of the Bishop, elect, of Vermont.
Advertisement placed in a newspaper. W. S. Baring-Gould ‘The Lure of the Limerick’ pt. 1, ch. 1, n. 5
The tumult and the shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart, And we are left with large supplies Of cold blancmange and rhubarb tart.
‘After the Party’ in L. E. Eyres (ed.) ‘In Three Tongues’ (1959) p. 130.
O God, for as much as without Thee We are not enabled to doubt Thee, Help us all by Thy grace
To convince the whole race
It knows nothing whatever about Thee.
Attributed, in Langford Reed ‘Complete Limerick Book’ (1924)
There once was a man who said, ‘God Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree Continues to be
When there’s no one about in the Quad.’
In Langford Reed ‘Complete Limerick Book’ (1924), to which came the following anonymous reply:
Dear Sir,
Your astonishment’s odd:
I am always about in the Quad. And that’s why the tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by Yours faithfully, God.
The baby doesn’t understand English and the Devil knows Latin.
On being asked to perform a baptism in English, in Evelyn Waugh ‘Ronald Knox’ (1959) pt. 1, ch. 5
A loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Definition of a baby (attributed)
11.50 Vicesimus Knox 1752-1821
That learning belongs not to the female character, and that the female mind is not capable of a degree of improvement equal to that of the other sex, are narrow and unphilosophical prejudices.
‘Essays’ ‘Moral and Literary’ (1782) no. 142
All sensible people agree in thinking that large seminaries of young ladies, though managed with all the vigilance and caution which human abilities can exert, are in danger of great corruption.
‘Liberal Education’ (1780) sect. 27 ‘On the literary education of women’
Can anything be more absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and yet so vehemently to insist on their resisting temptation?
In Mary Wollstonecraft ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792) ch. 7
11.51 Arthur Koestler 1905-83
One may not regard the world as a sort of metaphysical brothel for emotions.
‘Darkness at Noon’ (1940) ‘The Second Hearing’ ch. 7
The definition of the individual was: a multitude of one million divided by one million.
‘Darkness at Noon’ (1940) ‘The Grammatical Fiction’ ch. 2
Behaviourism is indeed a kind of flat-earth view of the mind...it has substituted for the erstwhile anthropomorphic view of the rat, a ratomorphic view of man.
‘The Ghost in the Machine’ (1967) ch. 1
God seems to have left the receiver off the hook, and time is running out.
‘The Ghost in the Machine’ (1967) ch. 18
A writer’s ambition should be to trade a hundred contemporary readers for ten readers in ten years’ time and for one reader in a hundred years’ time.
In ‘New York Times Book Review’ 1 April 1951
11.52 Jiddu Krishnamurti d. 1986
Happiness comes uninvited; and the moment you are conscious that you are happy, you are no longer happy.
‘The Penguin Krishnamurti Reader’ ‘Questions and Answers’
Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Speech in Holland, 3 August 1929, in Lilly Heber ‘Krishnamurti’ (1931) ch. 2
Religion is the frozen thought of men out of which they build temples.
In ‘Observer’ 22 April 1928 ‘Sayings of the Week’
11.53 Kris Kristofferson 1936—and Fred Foster
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose, Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’, but it’s free.
‘Me and Bobby McGee’ (1969 song)
11.54 Jeremy Joe Kronsberg
Every which way but loose.
Title of film (1978); starring Clint Eastwood
11.55 Paul Kruger 1825-1904
A bill of indemnity...for raid by Dr Jameson and the British South Africa Company’s troops. The amount falls under two heads—first, material damage, total of claim, £677,938 3s.3d.— second, moral or intellectual damage, total of claim, £1,000,000.
Telegram from the South African Republic communicated to the House of Commons by Joseph Chamberlain, in ‘Hansard’ 18 February 1897, col. 726
11.56 Joseph Wood Krutch 1893-1970
The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.
‘The Twelve Seasons’ (1949) ‘February’
Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.
‘The Twelve Seasons’ (1949) ‘February’
11.57 Stanley Kubrick 1928—
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.
In ‘Guardian’ 5 June 1963
11.58 Satish Kumar 1937—
Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.
‘Prayer for Peace’ (1981, adapted from the Upanishads)
11.59 Milan Kundera 1929—
The unbearable lightness of being.
Title of novel (1984)
11.60 Thomas Kyd 1558-94
What outcries pluck me from my naked bed?
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 2, sc. 5, l. 1
Oh eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears; Oh life, no life, but lively form of death;
Oh world, no world, but mass of public wrongs.
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 3, sc. 2, l. 1
Thus must we toil in other men’s extremes, That know not how to remedy our own.
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 3, sc. 6, l. 1
I am never better than when I am mad. Then methinks I am a brave fellow; then I do wonders. But reason abuseth me, and there’s the torment, there’s the hell.
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 3, sc. 7, The Fourth Addition (1602 ed.) l. 164
My son—and what’s a son? A thing begot Within a pair of minutes, thereabout,
A lump bred up in darkness.
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 3, sc. 11, The Third Addition (1602 ed.) l. 5
Duly twice a morning
Would I be sprinkling it with fountain water. At last it grew, and grew, and bore, and bore, Till at the length
It grew a gallows and did bear our son,
It bore thy fruit and mine: O wicked, wicked plant.
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 3, sc. 12, The Fourth Addition (1602 ed.) l. 66
For what’s a play without a woman in it?
‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (1592) act 4, sc. 1, l. 97
12.1 Henry Labouchere 1831-1912
He [Labouchere] did not object to the old man always having a card up his sleeve, but he did object to his insinuating that the Almighty had placed it there.
On Gladstone’s ‘frequent appeals to a higher power’: Earl Curzon ‘Modern Parliamentary Eloquence’ (1913) p. 25. A. L. Thorold quotes Labouchere from a private letter in ‘The Life of Henry Labouchere’ (1913) ch. 15: ‘Who cannot refrain from perpetually bringing an ace down his sleeve, even when he has only to play fair to win the trick.’
12.2 Jean de la Bruyére 1645-96
Le commencement et le dèclin de l’amour se font sentir par l’embarras oû l’on est de se trouver seuls.
The onset and the waning of love make themselves felt in the uneasiness experienced at being
alone together.
‘Les Caractéres ou les moeurs de ce siécle’ (1688) ‘Du Coeur’
Le peuple n’a guére d’esprit et les grands n’ont point d’âme...faut-il opter, je ne balance pas, je veux être peuple.
The people have little intelligence, the great no heart...if I had to choose I should have no
hesitation: I would be of the people.
‘Les Caractéres ou les moeurs de ce siécle’ (1688) ‘Des Grands’
There are only three events in a man’s life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.
‘Les Caractéres ou les moeurs de ce siécle’ (1688) ‘De l’homme’
Entre le bon sens et le bon goût il y a la diffèrence de la cause et son effet.
Between good sense and good taste there is the same difference as between cause and effect.
‘Les Caractéres ou les moeurs de ce siécle’ (1688) ‘Des Jugements’
Tout est dit et l’on vient trop tard depuis plus de sept mille ans qu’il y a des hommes et qui pensent.
Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too
late.
‘Les Caractéres ou les moeurs de ce siécle’ (1688) ‘Des Ouvrages de l’Esprit’
C’est un mètier que de faire un livre, comme de faire une pendule: il faut plus que de l’esprit pour être auteur.
Making a book is a craft, as is making a clock; it takes more than wit to become an author.
‘Les Caractéres ou les moeurs de ce siécle’ (1688) ‘Des Ouvrages de l’Esprit’
12.3 Nivelle de la Chaussèe 1692-1754
Quand tout le monde a tort, tout le monde a raison.
