We have done with Hope and Honour. we are lost to Love and Truth, We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung; And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth. God help us, for we knew the worst too young!
Rudyard KiplingRead
He will kill mice and he will be kind to babies...but when the moon gets up and the night comes, he is the Cat that Walks by Himself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates the dichotomy of nature; one can be both nurturing and independent.
Rudyard Kipling's quote reflects on the complexity of character, suggesting that while individuals may exhibit kindness and gentleness in their interactions with others, they also possess an inherent independence and freedom that sets them apart. The 'Cat that Walks by Himself' symbolizes a being that is both capable of affection and commitment but ultimately chooses to embrace its solitude and self-reliance, highlighting the duality of human and animal nature.
Themes
IndependenceNatureCharacterKindnessSolitude
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in discussions about personal identity at a philosophical seminar.
More from Rudyard Kipling
All quotes βHumble because of knowledge; mighty by sacrifice.
Rudyard KiplingRead
Hear and attend and listen; for this is what befell and be-happened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild -as wild as wild could be - and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself and all places were alike to him
Rudyard KiplingRead
I keep six honest serving men.
Rudyard KiplingRead
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden, You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.
Rudyard KiplingRead
Savings represent much more than mere money value. They are the proof that the saver is worth something in himself. Any fool can waste; any fool can muddle; but it takes something more of a man to save and the more he saves the more of a man he makes of himself. Waste and extravagance unsettle a man's mind for every crisis; thrift, which means some form of self-restraint, steadies it.
Rudyard KiplingRead
Similar quotes
A man will be justified by faith when, excluded from righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and clothed in it, appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as righteous.
John CalvinRead
You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.
Emile M. CioranRead
In our native terms, the ironic style is often compounded with the sardonic and the hard-boiled; even the effortlessly superior. But irony originates in the glance and the shrug of the loser, the outsider, the despised minority. It is a nuance that comes most effortlessly to the oppressed.
Christopher HitchensRead
The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.
D.T. SuzukiRead
The body is a multilingual being. It speaks through its color and its temperature, the flush of recognition, the glow of love, the ash of pain, the heat of arousal, the coldness of nonconviction. . . . It speaks through the leaping of the heart, the falling of the spirits, the pit at the center, and rising hope.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead
The great things in life are what they seem to be. And for that reason, strange as it may sound to you, often are very difficult to interpret (understand). Great passions are for the great of souls. Great events can only be seen by people who are on a level with them. We think we can have our visions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing visions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine.
Oscar WildeRead