Rudyard Kipling,
Plain Tales from the Hills — Wressley of the Foreign Office
(1889)
“ He had his vast special knowledge with him, so to speak; but the spirit, the woven-in human Touch, the poetry and the power of the output, were beyond all special knowledge. But I doubt whether he knew the gift that was in him then, and thus he may have lost some happiness. He was toiling for Tillie Venner, not for himself. ”
Rudyard Kipling,
Plain Tales from the Hills — Wressley of the Foreign Office
(1889)
“ Men often do their best work blind, for some one else's sake.Also, though this has nothing to do with the story, in India where every one knows every one else, you can watch men being driven, by the women who govern them, out of the rank-and-file and sent to take up points alone. A good man once started, goes forward; but an average man, so soon as the woman loses interest in his success as a tribute to her power, comes back to the battalion and is no more heard of.Wressley bore the first copy of his book to Simla and, blushing and stammering, presented it to Miss Venner. ”
Rudyard Kipling,
Plain Tales from the Hills — Wressley of the Foreign Office
(1889)
“ Men stand out all crude and raw, with nothing to tone them down, and nothing to scale them against. They do their work, and grow to think that there is nothing but their work, and nothing like their work, and that they are the real pivots on which the administration turns. ”
