258 Quotes by Jack London
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The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage.

He was justifying his existence, than which life can do no greater; for life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.

Never did he fail to respond savagely to the chatter of the squirrel he had first met on the blasted pine.

And at the instant he knew, he ceased to know.

Well, I am going to exercise my prerogative of roaring and show you how fares nobility. Watch me.

You stand on dead men's legs. You've never had any of your own. You couldn't walk alone between two sunrises and hustle the meat for your belly.

No matter how breathless the air when he dug his nest by tree or bank, the wind that later blew inevitably found him to leeward, sheltered and snug.

No matter how breathless the air when he dug his nest by tree or bank, the wind the later blew inevitably found him to leeward, sheltered and snug.

He wastes his time over his writing, trying to accomplish what geniuses and rare men with college educations sometimes accomplish.

Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.

White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.

A good joke will sell quicker than a good poem, and, measured in sweat and blood, will bring better remuneration.

Ever bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living!

Life streamed through him in splendid flood, glad and rampant, until it seemed that it would burst him asunder in sheer ecstasy and pour forth generously over the world.

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

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

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

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

The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.

To be able to forget means sanity.

A man without courage is to me the most despicable thing under the sun, a travesty on the whole scheme of creation.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The scab is a traitor to his God, his mother, and his class.

Affluence means influence.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

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.

Do you know the only value life has is what life puts on itself?

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

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

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

The greatest of the arts is the conquering of men.

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

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.

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

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.