173 quotes
Asia is not going to be civilised after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old.
The Man Who Was (1891)
It takes a great deal of Christianity to wipe out uncivilized Eastern instincts, such as falling in love at first sight.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
God gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Belovèd over all.
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
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)
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Epitaphs of the War (1914-1918) (1918)
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.
The Seven Seas (1896)
More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies.
The Phantom 'Rickshaw (1888)
A people always ends by resembling its shadow.
Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!—
Our touch can alter all created things,
We are everything on earth—except The Gods!
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
The Second Jungle Book (1895)
Fiction is Truth's elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till some one had told a story.
San Francisco is a mad city—inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people, whose women are of a remarkable beauty.
American Notes—At the Golden Gate (1891)
Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid.
And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)
The only serious enemy to the Empire, within or without, is that very Democracy which depends on the Empire for its proper comforts.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work.
India, as everyone knows, is divided equally between jungle, tigers, cobras, cholera, and sepoys
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.