Mowgli Quotes

“What is it? What is it? . . . Am I dying, Bagheera?” “No, Little Brother. Those are only tears such as men use.”

“To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you when he is grown.”

“Ye have told me so often to-night that I am a man (though indeed I would have been a wolf with you to my life’s end) that I feel your words are true.”

“Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast brought to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack.”

“Ay, roar well,” said Bagheera, under his whiskers; “for the time comes when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of Man.”

“And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers? I was born in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle; and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they are my brothers!”

“My heart is heavy with the things that I do not understand.”

“And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of except things to eat.”

“Men and their cubs are very wise. He may be a help in time.”

“The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship; but I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me.”

“Sorrow never stays punishment. But remember, Bagheera, he is very little.”

“Come along, Little Brother.”

“I have the Pack and I have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two for my sake. Why should I be afraid?”

“But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it; I know it; the Pack know it; and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told thee too.”

“Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude talk that I was a naked man’s cub and not fit to dig pig-nuts. But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to teach him better manners.”

“And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?” said Mowgli.

“I was born in the jungle. I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle, and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they are my brothers!”

“But why—but why should any wish to kill me?” said Mowgli.

“If a cub can do it, there is nothing to fear.”

“No. Why should I fear? I remember now—if it is not a dream—how, before I was a Wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and pleasant.”

“Are we all jackals, to fawn on this cattle butcher?

“I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people—if they be my own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship.”

“Because I was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me.”

“There shall be no war between any of us in the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go.”

“And when I come it will be to lay out Shere Khan’s hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell them in the jungle never to forget me!”

“My head is ringing like a bee tree,”

“I come for Bagheera and not for thee, fat old Baloo!”

“The jungle has many tongues. I know them all.”

“We be of one blood, ye and I,”

“And so I shall have a tribe of my own, and lead them through the branches all day long.”

“I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on me. No one else cared.”

“The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do not notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads.”

“We be of one blood, thou and I.”

“Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my trail!”

“I kill nothing,—I am too little,—but I drive goats toward such as can use them.

“I am an evil man-cub, and my stomach is sad in me.”

“So men are afraid of the People of the Jungle here also.”

“Look at the marks on his arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-child run away from the jungle.”

“To talk of the soul of a money-lender in a beast that never had the courage of a jackal is child’s talk.”

“I am an old man. I did not know that thou wast anything more than a herdsboy. May I rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me to pieces?”

“Fare you well, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come in with my wolves and hunt you up and down your street.”

Mowgli made up a song that came up into his throat all by itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping up and down on the rattling skin, and beating time with his heels till he had no more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akela howled between the verses.

“Man-Pack and Wolf-Pack have cast me out,” said Mowgli. “Now I will hunt alone in the jungle.”

“Alala! I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet all these people. Lend me thy coat, Shere Khan. Lend me thy gay striped coat that I may go to the Council Rock”