Rudyard Kipling on War
1865–1936 England
← All quotes by Rudyard Kipling
10 quotes
Four things greater than all things are,—
Women and Horses and Power and War.
Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again!
There's no discharge in the war!
“What are the bugles blowin' for?” said Files-on-Parade.
“To turn you out, to turn you out”, the Colour-Sergeant said.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892)
Two things greater than all things are,
The first is Love, and the second War.
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.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892)
For all we have and are,
For all our children's fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate!
* For heathen heart that puts her trust
in reeking tube and iron shard,
all valiant dust that builds on dust
and guarding calls not thee to guard
for frantic boast and foolish word
thy mercy on thy people lord!
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)
For it's Tommy this an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck 'im out, the brute!"
But it's "Savior of 'is country," when the guns begin to shoot.
Tho 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone;
'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own;
'E keeps 'is side-arms awful: 'e leaves 'em all about,
An' then comes up the Regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out.
For agony and spoil
Of nations beat to dust,
For poisoned air and tortured soil
And cold, commanded lust,
And every secret woe
The shuddering waters saw—
Willed and fulfilled by high and low—
Let them relearn the Law.