Barrack Room Ballads & Departamental Ditties and Ballads Quotes

“And the first rude sketch that the world has seen
was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it art?”
― Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads & Departamental Ditties and Ballads

“O it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and Tommy 'ow's your soul/But it's thin red line of heroes when the drums begin to roll.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads & Departamental Ditties and Ballads

“Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!”
― Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads & Departamental Ditties and Ballads

“and if somehow my conduct ain't all your fancy paints, why single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints”
― Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads & Departamental Ditties and Ballads

“When the flush of a newborn sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mold;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves: 'It's pretty, but is it Art?”
― Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads & Departamental Ditties and Ballads