Frases de Rudyard Kipling

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“Si en la lucha el destino te derriba.
Si todo en tu camino es cuesta arriba.

Si tu sonrisa es ansia insatisfecha.
Si hay faena excesiva y mala cosecha.

Si a tu caudal se contraponen diques,
date una tregua. ¡Pero no claudiques!”

“La intuición de una mujer es más precisa que la certeza de un hombre.”

“Hay dos cosas más grandes que todo lo demás. La primera es el amor y la segunda la guerra… Y como no sabemos en que va acabar la guerra, vida mía, hablemos de amor…”

“Al éxito y al fracaso, esos dos impostores, trátalos siempre con la misma indiferencia.”

“El éxito comienza en la voluntad”

“Nunca he cometido un error en mi vida. Al menos, ninguno que no haya podido justificar después.”

“No sólo éramos felices… ¡Además lo sabíamos!.”

“Las palabras son la más potente droga utilizada por la Humanidad.”

“No cabía la menor duda. Cerró los ojos y lo absorbió por completo. El sonido cesó de pronto.
—Vamos —murmuró a media voz—. Esto no es el fin.
El fin llegó luego con absoluta nitidez, como un arrullo entre dos ráfagas de lluvia. Mary Postgate soltó de golpe el aire entre los dientes y se estremeció de la cabeza a los pies.
Eso es —asintió con satisfacción, y volvió a la casa, poniendo patas arriba la rutina doméstica al darse el lujo de tomar un baño caliente antes del té, y después bajó con un aspecto que, al verla relajadamente tendida en el otro sofá, la señorita Fowler calificó de «¡muy atractivo!».”

“Entrometerse en el desatino del hombre es siempre una faena muy ingrata.”

“Seis honrados servidores
me enseñaron cuanto sé.
Sus nombres son cómo, cuándo,
dónde, qué, quién y por qué.”

“Si encomiendas a un hombre más de lo que puede buenamente hacer, lo hará. Si solamente le encomiendas lo que puede hacer, no hará nada.”

“Se aprende más de un erudito apasionado que de un montón de ganapanes de ardua brillantez.”

“Pero no podía mentir si le pagabas y moriría de hambre antes de robar.”

“Siempre me he inclinado a pensar bien de todo el mundo: evita muchos problemas.”

“No hay placer comparable al de encontrar un viejo amigo excepto el de logra uno nuevo.”

“Los peores embusteros son nuestros propios temores.”

“La oscuridad que conocemos nos fue otorgada como una gracia.”

“El poder sin responsabilidad. Esta es la prerrogativa de la ramera a través de los tiempos.”

“Dadme los cinco primeros años de la vida de un niño y tendréis el resto.”

“Cuando la tripulación y el capitán están cordialmente compenetrados, es preciso un temporal y más que un temporal para lanzar la nave a tierra.”

“Lleva a tu amigo Ha terminado con Hanuman, pero Hanuman no ha terminado con él.”

“Cuando tu Daemon esté a cargo, no intentes pensar conscientemente. Deriva, espera y obedece.”

“No hay pecado más grande quela ignorancia. Recuerda esto.”

“Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,
It will vanish and the stars will shine again,
Because, for all our power and weight and size,
We are nothing more than children of your brain!”

“God gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Belovèd over all.”

“Being kissed by a man who didn't wax his moustache was like eating an egg without salt.”

“By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
“Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!””

“E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive
An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.”

“Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need.”

“Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."”

“We're poor little lambs who've lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We're little black sheep who've gone astray,
Baa—aa—aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!”

“… it's always best to tell the truth.”

“Never again will I spend another winter in this accursed bucketshop of a refrigerator called England.”

“Oh the road to Mandalay
Where the flyin'-fishes play
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer
China 'crost the Bay!”

“He did his best to interest the girl in himself—that is to say, his work—and she, after the manner of women, did her best to appear interested in, what behind his back, she called "Mr. Wressley's Wajahs"; for she lisped very prettily. She did not understand one little thing about them, but she acted as if she did. Men have married on that sort of error before now.”

“Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work.”

“Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid.”

“Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments, an' a man can raise a thirst.”

“That's the secret. '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 walk down a street.”

“Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro—
And what should they know of England who only England know?”

“Many religious people are deeply suspicious. They seem—for purely religious purposes, of course—to know more about iniquity than the unregenerate.”

“I've just read that I'm dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.”

“Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor
With a hairy gold crown on 'er 'ead?
She 'as ships on the foam—she 'as millions at 'ome,
An' she pays us poor beggars in red.”

“A Nation spoke to a Nation,
A Queen sent word to a Throne:
‘Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own.
The gates are mine to open,
As the gates are mine to close,
And I set my house in order,'
Said our Lady of the Snows.”

“Call a truce, then, to our labours let us feast with friends and neighbours,
And be merry as the custom of our caste;
For if “faint and forced the laughter,” and if sadness follow after,
We are richer by one mocking Christmas past.”

“Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges—
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!”

“When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it—lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!”

“Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!”

“Who hath desired the Sea?—the sight of salt water unbounded—
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?”

“Ever the wide world over, lass,
Ever the trail held true,
Over the world and under the world,
And back at the last to you.”

“Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.”

“There rise her timeless capitals of Empires daily born,
Whose plinths are laid at midnight, and whose streets are packed at morn;
And here come hired youths and maids that feign to love or sin
In tones like rusty razor-blades to tunes like smitten tin.”