The Jungle Book Quotes

Find quotes from this novel, with commentary from Shmoop.  Pick a theme below to begin.

Rules and Order Quotes

Madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. (1.2)

Revenge Quotes

The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody i...

Violence Quotes

"Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower down thy gullet!" [Mowgli] beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch and the tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. (1.136)

Courage Quotes

"[Mowgli] came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was not afraid!" (1.44)

Coming of Age Quotes

[Mowgli] 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. (1.70)

Foreignness and "The Other" Quotes

Directly in front of [Father Wolf], holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk—as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf's cave at night. (1.27)

Principles Quotes

The reason beasts give among themselves [for not hunting man] is that Man is the weakest and most defenceless [sic] of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. (1.19)

Betrayal Quotes

"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!" (1.79)

Family Quotes

A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right on the child's back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as...