Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes, It will vanish and the stars will shine again, Because, for all our power and weight and size, We are nothing more than children of your brain!
Where these words come from
- 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- The Secret of the Machines (1911); Exact wording and attribution checked. Machines personified as the speakers of this poem; literary reflection on technology, not an instruction.
- The Secret of the Machines (1911)
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See allFiction is Truth's elder sister.
Rudyard KiplingIf you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard KiplingBut remember, please, the Law by which we live, We are not built to comprehend a lie, We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard KiplingIf you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard KiplingBut remember, please, the Law by which we live, We are not built to comprehend a lie, We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!
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