Remarks by Rudyard Kipling | V2Melody Quotations

“All you have to do for the next few years is to go out and get it. As, of course, you will.”

A brisk encouragement to make the most of opportunity through action. · Speech, Work in the Future, 1924

“I have had the honour of meeting many such men of many nationalities, explorers of sand-buried cities and bold hunters of meridians across unexplored mountains.”

Celebrating the international community of explorers and their varied achievements. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

“The men who have borne the extremes of adventure and hardship have to report what they have done in man’s secular battle against Space and Time.”

Elevating exploration into a broader human struggle against the limits of geography and time. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

“I confess there is something, to me as terrible as it is touching, in the thought of the men even now scattered under the shadow of death.”

Expressing admiration mixed with apprehension for explorers facing extreme danger. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

“The record of their toil receives its final stamp of worth.”

Describing the importance of expert judgement in recognising difficult achievement. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

“It is a law of his being, and as such constitutes yet another handicap.”

Describing the inner compulsion to write as both gift and burden. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

“Sometimes they find it difficult to feed one.”

A stark reminder of the economic insecurity that can accompany literary work. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

“In other callings of life there exists a convention that what a man has made shall be his own and his children’s after him.”

Contrasting literary property with ordinary assumptions about ownership. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

“The calling of letters carries with it disabilities from which these professions are free.”

Drawing attention to the particular difficulties faced by writers. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

“There are as many men nowadays as there were in Solomon’s time whose skill has not found favour.”

Suggesting that the problem of overlooked talent is timeless. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

“They have elected to take their chance with time to come; but their descendants have to take certain or uncertain chances now.”

Pointing to the personal costs of artists sacrificing present security for future recognition. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

“Being artists, these men must needs do the work that is laid upon them to do, and while they are doing it they are apt to overlook a number of important worldly considerations.”

Describing the tension between artistic vocation and practical worldly concerns. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

“The world’s verdict is, of course, of great financial value. The verdict of our fellow-craftsmen is a little nearer the facts of the case.”

Distinguishing commercial success from genuine artistic judgement. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

“There is much to be said for either plan. If you break heads, you at least discover what is inside them; if you count them, you have to take what is inside them on trust.”

A comic contrast between physical force and democratic procedure. · Speech, The Ritual of Government, 1910

“I am entrusted with a toast which you can easily see demands somewhat cautious handling.”

A humorous acknowledgement of the hazards of speaking about politics at a formal dinner. · Speech, The Ritual of Government, 1910

“They may be trivial or absurd, but one must remember that in a few years most of our existing methods of transport will be profoundly changed.”

Showing how apparently minor observations can reveal major technological change. · Speech, Some Aspects of Travel, 1914

“I cannot pretend to have travelled widely, but I have met many travellers, and I have noticed what they tell the public in print.”

A modest introduction to his observations about travel and travellers. · Speech, Some Aspects of Travel, 1914

“He may be full of curiosity and wonder about the life on which he is just entering, and for that reason may plunge into any and every book he can lay hands on.”

Celebrating curiosity as one of the natural motives for reading. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

“A man may be constitutionally lazy; or he may be overstrained, and so take refuge in a book to rest himself.”

Acknowledging that people read for many reasons beyond self-improvement. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

“I cannot quite agree that reading in itself is a virtuous and holy deed.”

Resisting the sentimental idea that reading is automatically beneficial. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

“We should long ago have become a race of unbearably perfect archangels if we could buy knowledge and prudence out of sevenpenny editions.”

A humorous reminder that reading alone cannot make people virtuous. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

“Your choice is practically illimitable, for the literature of our England is strewn from end to end with a prodigality that almost frightens one.”

Celebrating the extraordinary breadth of the literary inheritance available to readers. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

“It is possible that our reading, if so be we read wisely, may save us to a certain extent from some of the serious forms of trouble.”

Presenting literature as a practical source of resilience and experience. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

“I have always thought that the best cure for despair is to interest yourself in another man’s trouble, or preferably another man’s joy.”

A compassionate prescription for escaping destructive self-absorption. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

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