The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him.
I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth.
There is no harm in a man's cub.
None can hope to lead the Pack forever.
He was thinking of the time that comes to every leader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feebler and feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leader comes up--to be killed in his turn.
The others they hate thee because their eyes cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns from their feet--because thou art a man.
What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue.
Fire.... Every beast lives in deadly fear of it.
- His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo's pride--
- Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.
- Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother,
- For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother.
- "There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill;
- But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.
None of the Jungle People like being disturbed.
As the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground like black-velvet embroidery.
Well, if I am a man, a man I must become.
In the jungle, life and food depend on keeping your temper.
Why should I waste wisdom on a river-turtle?
More Rudyard Kipling Quotes
