100 Inspiring and Thought-Provoking Quotes by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling, the esteemed author of classics like The Jungle Book and If—, has gifted us with a wealth of wisdom through his writings. His quotes are celebrated for their profound insights into the human condition, making them resonate deeply with readers from various walks of life. Whether you are in search of motivational quotes to uplift your spirits or profound reflections on life’s challenges, Kipling’s words offer timeless guidance. Here, we present a collection of enlightening quotes that encapsulate his unique perspective on life, purpose, and resilience.
- “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”
- “The female of the species is more deadly than the male.”
- “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.”
- “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
- “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
- “The best of a book is not the thought which it conveys, but the thought which it suggests.”
- “We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”
- “A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.”
- “There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this.”
- “Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need.”
- “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too…”
- “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.”
- “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”
- “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”
- “Never look backward or you’ll fall down the stairs.”
- “You must either use or lose the talents you possess.”
- “A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.”
- “The world is full of stuffy, self-important people who think they are wonderful.”
- “If you make a man a promise, keep it.”
- “The power of the dog is no ordinary power.”
- “We don’t make the laws. We just obey them.”
- “He travels the fastest who travels alone.”
- “There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right.”
- “A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.”
- “A man’s mind is wont to tell him that it is worth more than it really is.”
- “It is not good to be too much in love.”
- “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.”
- “To each, the past is as an unbounded sea of possibilities.”
- “A man’s usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals, not living down to them.”
- “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, and go to your God like a soldier.”
- “The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.”
- “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
- “A man’s head is always full of new thoughts, and the more new thoughts a man has, the more likely he is to be sensible.”
- “We are all the same, and yet we are all different.”
- “When you are in doubt, be still and wait.”
- “The test of a good man is his ability to hold his own in adversity.”
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
- “There is no greater power than that of the man who controls himself.”
- “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
- “The biggest of all the games is the game that one plays with oneself.”
- “All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They.”
- “A man’s life is only as good as his word.”
- “The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, and the man who knows the jungle will not be afraid.”
- “I have been young and now am old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread.”
- “The only way to deal with the future is to function efficiently in the present.”
- “A man can never have too many good friends, nor too much ammunition.”
- “The way of the world is to teach you the rules and then set you free to make your own decisions.”
- “The simplest way to make a friend is to be a friend.”
- “A good deed never goes unnoticed.”
- “A man is not where he lives but where he loves.”
- “The greatest victory is to conquer oneself.”
- “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.”
- “To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”
- “The most important thing in life is to have a good conscience.”
- “Life is a journey, not a destination.”
- “The mark of a true friend is the ability to stay with you through thick and thin.”
- “Nothing is more exhilarating than the feeling of being alive.”
- “The greatest gift you can give someone is your time.”
- “A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.”
- “Time is a great healer, but a poor beautician.”
- “It is not the years in your life that count; it is the life in your years.”
- “It is not how you start but how you finish that counts.”
- “The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.”
- “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
- “One can never be too old to learn.”
- “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
- “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
- “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”
- “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
- “The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.”
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
- “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
- “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.”
- “What we think, we become.”
- “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
- “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
- “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
- “Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
- “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
- “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
- “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.”
- “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
- “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
- “The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”
- “A man’s character is his destiny.”
- “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
- “The only true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.”
- “He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”
- “A man who has nothing to boast about but his illustrious ancestors is like a potato plant—the only good thing about him is underground.”
- “A good laugh is sunshine in the house.”
- “The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
- “All things are inconstant except the love of God.”
- “The life of a man is a continuous struggle against a multitude of unknown factors.”
- “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
- “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
- “The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.”
- “It is not how old you are but how you are old.”
- “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
- “The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.”
