The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

You’re a pore benighted ’eathen but a first-class fightin’ man;
An’ ’ere’s to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, with your ’ayrick ’ead of ’air—
You big black boundin’ beggar—for you broke a British square!
‘Fuzzy-Wuzzy’ (1892)
We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We’re little black sheep who’ve gone astray,
Baa-aa-aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha’ mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!
‘Gentlemen-Rankers’ (1892)
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:—’Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel paths with broken dinner-knives.
‘The Glory of the Garden’ (1911)
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire.
‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’ (1927)
The uniform ’e wore
Was nothin’ much before,
An’ rather less than ’arf o’ that be’ind.
‘Gunga Din’ (1892)
Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
‘Gunga Din’ (1892)
There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!
‘In the Neolithic Age’ (1893)
But I consort with long-haired things
In velvet collar-rolls,
Who talk about the Aims of Art,
And ‘theories’ and ‘goals’,
And moo and coo with women-folk
About their blessed souls.