The Jungle Book

by

Rudyard Kipling

Mowgli is the protagonist of the first three stories in The Jungle Book. Mother Wolf and Father Wolf raise him in the jungle after finding him there as a young boy. His real mother is likely Messua. Mowgli is an intelligent child whose upbringing gives him a unique perspective of the world. On the one hand, he is trained in the Law of the Jungle, a philosophy most of the animals in the book live and die by. However, he is also a human being, and he learns the rules and laws of humankind as well. Mowgli feels more comfortable in the animal world than the human world, though he never fits neatly into either. Mowgli attempts to live among humans in “Tiger! Tiger!” but does not like or understand their way of life. However, he is also not fully accepted amongst the animals, and they eventually exile him from the jungle at the end of “Mowgli’s Brothers.” Although Mowgli returns to the animals after killing Shere Khan in “Tiger! Tiger!” the narrator suggests his return is only temporary and that he will one day go back to living amongst humans. In “Mowgli’s Song,” which acts as an epilogue to “Tiger! Tiger!” Mowgli describes himself as sad and lacking in purpose. He feels his time in the jungle and civilization have split him in two, and he does not understand how to move forward.

Mowgli Quotes in The Jungle Book

The The Jungle Book quotes below are all either spoken by Mowgli or refer to Mowgli. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Laws of Nature Theme Icon
).
1. Mowgli’s Brothers Quotes

The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. 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 in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too—and it is true—that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.

Related Characters: Father Wolf (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan
Page Number: 6-7
Explanation and Analysis:

‘And it is I, Raksha [The Demon], who answers. The man’s cub is mine, Lungri—mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs—frog-eater—fish-killer—he shall hunt thee! Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever thou camest into the world! Go!’

Related Characters: Father Wolf (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Ay, roar well,’ said Bagheera, under his whiskers, ‘for the time will come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of man.’

Related Characters: Bagheera (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan, Mother Wolf
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

‘But why—but why should any wish to kill me?’ said Mowgli.

‘Look at me,’ said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him steadily between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute.

‘That is why,’ he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. ‘Not even I can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns from their feet—because thou art a man.’

Related Characters: Mowgli (speaker), Bagheera (speaker), Mother Wolf, Father Wolf
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:

The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone, to meet those mysterious things that are called men.

Related Characters: Mowgli
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
3. Kaa’s Hunting Quotes

‘Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,” Baloo answered very earnestly. “I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that shall protect him with the birds and the Snake People, and all that hunt on four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if he will only remember the words, from all in the jungle. Is not that worth a little beating?’

Related Characters: Baloo (speaker), Mowgli, Bagheera, The Bandar-log
Page Number: 36-37
Explanation and Analysis:

‘I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle—except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees. They have no law. They are outcasts. They have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die.’

Related Characters: Baloo (speaker), Mowgli, The Bandar-log
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

Mowgli could not help laughing when the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave them. ‘We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be true,’ they shouted. ‘Now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the Jungle-People so that they may notice us in future, we will tell you all about our most excellent selves.’ Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together: ‘This is true; we all say so.’

Related Characters: The Bandar-log (speaker), Mowgli
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:

Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps from a panther’s point of view (they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs), but for a seven-year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up with a word.

‘Now,’ said Bagheera, ‘jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go home.’

One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. There is no nagging afterward.

Related Characters: Bagheera (speaker), Mowgli, Baloo, The Bandar-log
Page Number: 69-71
Explanation and Analysis:
5. ‘Tiger! Tiger!’ Quotes

Then they sing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, and the day seems longer than most people’s whole lives, and perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, and put reeds into the men’s hands, and pretend that they are kings and the figures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped.

Related Characters: Mowgli
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick of this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more[,]’ [cried the Pack.]

‘Nay,’ purred Bagheera, ‘that may not be. When ye are full-fed, the madness may come upon you again. Not for nothing are ye called the Free People. Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O Wolves.’

Related Characters: Bagheera (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan
Related Symbols: Shere Khan’s Pelt
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:

So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward he became a man and married.

But that is a story for grown-ups.

Related Characters: Mowgli
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
6. Mowgli’s Song Quotes

I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is under my feet.

All the Jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. Look – look well, O Wolves!

Ahae! My heart is heavy with the things that I do not understand.

Related Characters: Mowgli (speaker), Shere Khan
Related Symbols: Shere Khan’s Pelt
Page Number: 101
Explanation and Analysis:
7. The White Seal Quotes

Of course it was not all done at once, for the seals need a long time to turn things over in their minds, but year by year more seals went away from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to the quiet, sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while the hollus-chikie play round him, in that sea where no man comes.

Related Characters: Mowgli, Kotick, Rikki-tikki-tavi, Sea Catch
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mowgli Quotes in The Jungle Book

The The Jungle Book quotes below are all either spoken by Mowgli or refer to Mowgli. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Laws of Nature Theme Icon
).
1. Mowgli’s Brothers Quotes

The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. 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 in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too—and it is true—that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.

Related Characters: Father Wolf (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan
Page Number: 6-7
Explanation and Analysis:

‘And it is I, Raksha [The Demon], who answers. The man’s cub is mine, Lungri—mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs—frog-eater—fish-killer—he shall hunt thee! Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever thou camest into the world! Go!’

Related Characters: Father Wolf (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Ay, roar well,’ said Bagheera, under his whiskers, ‘for the time will come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of man.’

Related Characters: Bagheera (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan, Mother Wolf
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

‘But why—but why should any wish to kill me?’ said Mowgli.

‘Look at me,’ said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him steadily between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute.

‘That is why,’ he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. ‘Not even I can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns from their feet—because thou art a man.’

Related Characters: Mowgli (speaker), Bagheera (speaker), Mother Wolf, Father Wolf
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:

The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone, to meet those mysterious things that are called men.

Related Characters: Mowgli
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
3. Kaa’s Hunting Quotes

‘Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,” Baloo answered very earnestly. “I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that shall protect him with the birds and the Snake People, and all that hunt on four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if he will only remember the words, from all in the jungle. Is not that worth a little beating?’

Related Characters: Baloo (speaker), Mowgli, Bagheera, The Bandar-log
Page Number: 36-37
Explanation and Analysis:

‘I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle—except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees. They have no law. They are outcasts. They have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die.’

Related Characters: Baloo (speaker), Mowgli, The Bandar-log
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

Mowgli could not help laughing when the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave them. ‘We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be true,’ they shouted. ‘Now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the Jungle-People so that they may notice us in future, we will tell you all about our most excellent selves.’ Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together: ‘This is true; we all say so.’

Related Characters: The Bandar-log (speaker), Mowgli
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:

Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps from a panther’s point of view (they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs), but for a seven-year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up with a word.

‘Now,’ said Bagheera, ‘jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go home.’

One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. There is no nagging afterward.

Related Characters: Bagheera (speaker), Mowgli, Baloo, The Bandar-log
Page Number: 69-71
Explanation and Analysis:
5. ‘Tiger! Tiger!’ Quotes

Then they sing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, and the day seems longer than most people’s whole lives, and perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, and put reeds into the men’s hands, and pretend that they are kings and the figures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped.

Related Characters: Mowgli
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick of this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more[,]’ [cried the Pack.]

‘Nay,’ purred Bagheera, ‘that may not be. When ye are full-fed, the madness may come upon you again. Not for nothing are ye called the Free People. Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O Wolves.’

Related Characters: Bagheera (speaker), Mowgli, Shere Khan
Related Symbols: Shere Khan’s Pelt
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:

So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward he became a man and married.

But that is a story for grown-ups.

Related Characters: Mowgli
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
6. Mowgli’s Song Quotes

I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is under my feet.

All the Jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. Look – look well, O Wolves!

Ahae! My heart is heavy with the things that I do not understand.

Related Characters: Mowgli (speaker), Shere Khan
Related Symbols: Shere Khan’s Pelt
Page Number: 101
Explanation and Analysis:
7. The White Seal Quotes

Of course it was not all done at once, for the seals need a long time to turn things over in their minds, but year by year more seals went away from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to the quiet, sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while the hollus-chikie play round him, in that sea where no man comes.

Related Characters: Mowgli, Kotick, Rikki-tikki-tavi, Sea Catch
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis: