“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.”

— Rudyard Kipling, Interview, June 1935 (published in Reader's Digest, 1959)

About Rudyard Kipling

1865 – 1936

English writer and poet, Nobel laureate in Literature (1907), known for 'The Jungle Book' and the poem 'If—'.

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.”

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

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

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”