Jack London Quotes

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 function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage.

I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.

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.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

There's only one way to make a beginning, and that is to begin; and begin with hard work, and patience, prepared for all the disappoint­ment s.

Limited minds can recognize limitations only in others.

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.

Not all the monsters have fangs.

Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.

Fear urged him to go back, but growth drove him on.

You look back and see how hard you worked and how poor you were, and how desperately anxious you were to succeed, and all you can remember is how happy you were.

It is so much easier to live placidly and complacently. Of course, to live placidly and complacently is not to live at all.

Age is never so old as youth would measure it.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

Affluence means influence.

The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.

It's better to stand by someone's side than by yourself

In a saturated population life is always cheap.

Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.

To be able to forget means sanity.

Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.

Desire is a pain which seeks easement through possession.

It is a simple matter to see the obvious, to do the expected. The tendency of the individual life is to be static rather than dynamic, and this tendency is made into a propulsion by civilization, where the obvious only is seen, and the unexpected rarely happens. When the unexpected does happen, however, and when it is of sufficiently grave import, the unfit perish. They do not see what is not obvious, are unable to do the unexpected, are incapable of adjusting their well-grooved lives to other and strange grooves. In short, when they come to the end of their own groove, they die.