Just So Stories Quotes

“Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was: O my Best Beloved, when the tame animals were wild.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“The Man went to sleep in front of the fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, combing her hair. She took the bone of the shoulder of mutton – the big fat blade bone – and she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she threw more wood on the fire, and she made a Magic. She made the first Singing Magic in the world.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“You must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“What is this," said the leopard,"that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who see and are silent!”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories [with Biographical Introduction]

“and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“This, O my Best Beloved is a story – a new and wonderful story – a story quite different from the other stories”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“Then the Man threw his two boots and his little stone axe (that makes three) at the Cat, and the Cat ran out of the Cave and the Dog chased him up a tree; and from that day to this, Best Beloved, three proper Men out of five will always throw things at a Cat whenever they meet him, and all proper Dogs will chase him up a tree. But the Cat keeps his side of the bargain too. He will kill mice and he will be kind to Babies when he is in the house, just as long as they do not pull his tail too hard. But when he has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“The camel's hump is an ugly lump,
Which well you might see at the zoo.
But uglier yet is the hump we get,
For having to little to do.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“There was never a Queen like Balkis
From here to the wide world's end;
But Balkis talked to a butterfly
As you, would talk to a friend.

There was never a king like Solomon,
Not since the world began;
But Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.

She was a queen of Sabea --
And he was Asia's Lord --
But they both of 'em talked to butterflies
When they took their walks abroad”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“IN the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth—so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small 'Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so as to be out of harm's way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, 'I'm hungry.' And the small 'Stute Fish said in a small 'stute voice, 'Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories