Rudyard Kipling: "If any question why we died, Tell them,..."

About Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( RUD-yərd; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, novelist, poet and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.

More quotations from Rudyard Kipling

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

—Rudyard Kipling

power words mankind drugs

He wrapped himself in quotations- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

—Rudyard Kipling

It's clever, but is it Art?

—Rudyard Kipling

art

Heaven grant us patience with a man in love.

—Rudyard Kipling

love patience

A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.

—Rudyard Kipling

certainty confidence gender

More quotations tagged with “lying”

Statistician: A man who believes figures don't lie, but admits that under analysis some of them won't stand up either.

—Evan Esar

lying statistics

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

—H. L. Mencken

truth belief lying

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically—for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist—but then what isn't?

—Quentin Crisp

truth shock manners lying

When a child first catches adults out—when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just—his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.

—John Steinbeck

justice wisdom learning intelligence safety gods childhood growth lying parental infallibility

Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.

—Homer Simpson

belief lying

History

3 Dec 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.

If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.

About Rudyard Kipling

More quotations from Rudyard Kipling

More quotations tagged with “lying”

History

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.