Rudyard Kipling: Frasi in inglese (pagina 10)

“More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies.”

“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”

“This man in his own country prayed we know not to what powers.
We pray them to reward him for his bravery in ours.”

“Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again!
There's no discharge in the war!”

“It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the mongoose family is “Run and find out,” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.”

“You may talk o' gin and beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.”

“I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them.”

“But that's another story.”

“And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss. ”

“When you get to a man in the case,
They're like as a row of pins -
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins! ”

“Whatever comes or does not come, we men must not be afraid.”

“Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbours. ”

“When next he came to me he was drunk—royally drunk on many poets for the first time revealed to him. His pupils were dilated, his words tumbled over each other, and he wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors.”

“Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should,
We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good.”

“There is no middle way in this war. We do not doubt our ultimate victory any more than we doubt the justice of our cause.It is not conceivable that we should fail, for if we fail the lights of freedom go out over the whole world. They may glimmer for a little in the western hemisphere,but a Germany dominating half the world by sea and land will most certainly extinguish them in every quarter where they have hitherto shone upon mankind, so that even the traditions of freedom will pass out of remembrance. If we do our duty we shall not fail.”

“There are only two divisions in the world to-day — human beings and Germans. And the German knows it. Human beings have long ago sickened of him and everything connected with him,of all he does, says, thinks and believes.”

“There is none like to me!”

“Very many Americans have an offensive habit of referring to natives as `heathen.' Mahommedans and Hindus are heathen alike in their eyes.”

“Beware of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are.”