JACK LONDON (1876 - 1916), A PROMINENT AMERICAN NOVELIST AND JOURNALIST WHO IS BEST KNOWN FOR "CALL OF THE WILD” (1903) AND “THE SEA WOLF” (1904).
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
“Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”
“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.”
“I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.”
“But I am I. And I won't subordinate my taste to the unanimous judgment of mankind”
“As one grows weaker one is less susceptible to suffering. There is less hurt because there is less to hurt.”
“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.”
“He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.”
“He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.”
“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”
“These women, capable of the most sublime emotions, of the tenderest sympathies, were openmouthed and screaming. They wanted to live, they were helpless, likes rats in a trap, and they screamed.”
“Do you know the only value life has is what life puts upon itself? And it is of course overestimated, for it is of necessity prejudiced in its own favour. Take that man I had aloft. He held on as if he were a precious thing, a treasure beyond diamonds of rubies. To you? No. To me? Not at all. To himself? Yes. But I do not accept his estimate. He sadly overrates himself. There is plenty more life demanding to be born. Had he fallen and dripped his brains upon the deck like honey from the comb, there would have been no loss to the world. The supply is too large.”
“The loneliness of the man is slowly being borne in upon me. There is not a man aboard but hates or fears him, nor is there a man whom he does not despise.”
“And through it all, calm and impassive, leaning on his elbow and gazing down, Wolf Larsen seemed lost in a great curiosity. This wild stirring of yeasty life, this terrific revolt and defiance of matter that moved, perplexed and interested him.”
“Men do not knowingly drink for the effect alcohol produces on the body. What they drink for is the brain-effect; and if it must come through the body, so much the worse for the body.”
“The fortunate man is the one who cannot take more than a couple of drinks without becoming intoxicated. The unfortunate wight is the one who can take many glasses without betraying a sign; who must take numerous glasses in order to get the kick.”
“There are things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice. The right and wrong of this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.”
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
~Jack London, The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.
“Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”
~Jack London, White Fang (1906)
“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.”
~Jack London, “To Build a Fire” published as a collection of short stories in the book Lost Face (1910)
“I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.”
~Jack London, Letter to Charles Warren Stoddard (21 August 1903)
“But I am I. And I won't subordinate my taste to the unanimous judgment of mankind”
~Jack London, Martin Eden
“As one grows weaker one is less susceptible to suffering. There is less hurt because there is less to hurt.”
~Jack London, The Star Rover
“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.”
~Jack London,"Confession" in Complete Works of Jack London, Delphi Classics, 2013
“He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.”
~Jack London,The Call of the Wild (1903)
“He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.”
~Jack London, The Call of the Wild (1903)
“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”
~Jack London, The Call of the Wild (1903)
“These women, capable of the most sublime emotions, of the tenderest sympathies, were openmouthed and screaming. They wanted to live, they were helpless, likes rats in a trap, and they screamed.”
~Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (1904)
“Do you know the only value life has is what life puts upon itself? And it is of course overestimated, for it is of necessity prejudiced in its own favour. Take that man I had aloft. He held on as if he were a precious thing, a treasure beyond diamonds of rubies. To you? No. To me? Not at all. To himself? Yes. But I do not accept his estimate. He sadly overrates himself. There is plenty more life demanding to be born. Had he fallen and dripped his brains upon the deck like honey from the comb, there would have been no loss to the world. The supply is too large.”
~Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (1904)
“The loneliness of the man is slowly being borne in upon me. There is not a man aboard but hates or fears him, nor is there a man whom he does not despise.”
~Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (1904)
“And through it all, calm and impassive, leaning on his elbow and gazing down, Wolf Larsen seemed lost in a great curiosity. This wild stirring of yeasty life, this terrific revolt and defiance of matter that moved, perplexed and interested him.”
~Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (1904)
“Men do not knowingly drink for the effect alcohol produces on the body. What they drink for is the brain-effect; and if it must come through the body, so much the worse for the body.”
~Jack London, John Barleycorn (1913)
“The fortunate man is the one who cannot take more than a couple of drinks without becoming intoxicated. The unfortunate wight is the one who can take many glasses without betraying a sign; who must take numerous glasses in order to get the kick.”
~Jack London, John Barleycorn (1913)
“There are things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice. The right and wrong of this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.”
~Jack London, “An Odyssey of the North" in The Best Short Stories of Jack London (1962)
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