The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (254 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
(
Hugh Kingsmill Lunn
) 1889–1949
What still alive at twenty-two,
A clean upstanding chap like you?
Sure, if your throat 'tis hard to slit,
Slit your girl's, and swing for it.
"Two Poems, after A. E. Housman" (1933) no. 1
1942–
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, and I warn you not to grow old.
on the prospect of a Conservative re-election
speech at Bridgend, 7 June 1983
1894–1956
The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform.
in
Time
21 January 1966
1865–1936
When you've shouted "Rule Britannia", when you've sung "God save the Queen"—
When you've finished killing Kruger with your mouth.
"The Absent-Minded Beggar" (1899) st. 1
England's on the anvil—hear the hammers ring—
Clanging from the Severn to the Tyne!
"The Anvil" (1927)
Seek not to question other than
The books I leave behind.
"The Appeal" (1940)
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)
Foot—foot—foot—foot—sloggin' over Africa—
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again!)
"Boots" (1903)
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
"Common Form" (1919)
It's clever, but is it Art?
"The Conundrum of the Workshops" (1892)
They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away,
An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'.
"Danny Deever" (1892)
The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone;
'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own.
"The 'Eathen" (1896).
And what should they know of England who only England know?
"The English Flag" (1892)
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
"The Female of the Species" (1919)
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)
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!
"Gentlemen-Rankers" (1892)
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)
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
"Gunga Din" (1892)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.
"If—" (1910)
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch…
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!
"If—" (1910)
There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!
"In the Neolithic Age" (1893)
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)
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins!
"The Ladies" (1896)
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"
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
"Mandalay" (1892)
Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst.
"Mandalay" (1892)
"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)
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)
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
"The Power of the Dog" (1909)
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)
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh, and Tyre!
"Recessional" (1897)
Such boasting as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law.
"Recessional" (1897)
How far is St. Helena from the field of Austerlitz?
"A St. Helena Lullaby" (1910)
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)
If blood be the price of admiralty,
Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
"The Song of the Dead" (1896)
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).
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)
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" (1897) st. 1
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.
"The Way through the Woods" (1910)
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)
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)
Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world.
In Black and White
(1888) "On the City Wall".
They settled things by making up a saying, "What the Bandar-log think now the Jungle will think later": and that comforted them a great deal.
The Jungle Book
(1894) "Kaa's Hunting"
The motto of all the mongoose family is, "Run and find out."
The Jungle Book
(1894) "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"
He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.
Just So Stories
(1902) "The Cat that Walked by Himself"
An Elephant's Child—who was full of 'satiable curtiosity.
Just So Stories
(1902) "The Elephant's Child"
The great grey-green, greasy, Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees.
Just So Stories
(1902) "The Elephant's Child"
Little Friend of all the World.
Kim's nickname
Kim
(1901) ch. 1
The man who would be king.
title of short story (1888)
He swathed himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
Many Inventions
(1893) "The Finest Story in the World"
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"
'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 Lord Beaverbrook's political standpoint vis-à-vis the Daily Express, and quoted by Stanley Baldwin, 18 March 1931
in
Kipling Journal
vol. 38, no. 180, December 1971.
