Jack London Quotes

“As usual, Junko thought about Jack London's 'To Build a Fire.' It was the story of a man traveling alone through the snowy Alaskan interior and his attempts to light a fire. He would freeze to death unless he could make it catch. The sun was going down. Junko hadn't read much fiction, but that one short story she had read again and again, ever since her teacher had assigned it as an essay topic during summer vacation of her first year in high school. The scene of the story would always come vividly to mind as she read. She could feel the man's fear and hope and despair as if they were her own; she could sense the very pounding of his heart as he hovered on the brink of death. Most important of all, though, was the fact that the man was fundamentally longing for death. She knew that for sure. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew it from the start. Death was really what he wanted. He knew that it was the right ending for him. And yet he had to go on fighting with all his might. He had to fight against an overwhelming adversary in order to survive. What most shook Junko was this deep-rooted contradiction.
The teacher ridiculed her view. 'Death is really what he wanted? That's a new one for me! And strange! Quite 'original,' I'd have to say.' He read her conclusion aloud before the class, and everybody laughed.
But Junko knew. All of them were wrong. Otherwise how could the ending of the story be so quiet and beautiful?”
― Haruki Murakami, After the Quake

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand as well.”
― Jack London

“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.”
― Jack London, The Call of the Wild / White Fang

“The surpluses will have to be expended somehow, and trust the oligarchs to find a way. Magnificent roads will be built. There will be great achievements in science, and especially in art. When the oligarchs have completely mastered the people, they will have time to spare for other things. They will become worshippers of beauty. They will become art-lovers. And under their direction and generously rewarded, will toil the artists. The result will be great art; for no longer, as up to yesterday, will the artists pander to the bourgeois taste of the middle class. It will be great art, I tell you, and wonder cities will arise that will make tawdry and cheap the cities of old time. And in these cities will the oligarchs dwell and worship beauty”
― Jack London

“Perhaps the greatest charm of tramp-life is the absence of monotony. In Hobo Land the face of life is protean—an ever changing phantasmagoria, where the impossible happens and the unexpected jumps out of the bushes at every turn of the road. The hobo never knows what is going to happen the next moment; hence, he lives only in the present moment. He has learned the futility of telic endeavor, and knows the delight of drifting along with the whimsicalities of Chance”
― Jack London, The Road

“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Outside, the dogs whine over the wind. They sense the wolves - they sense the wild. It calls to them, like it calls to me, and I wonder sometimes if we are the only ones who hear it.”
― Summer Lane, Running with Wolves

“Then he dozed off to sleep and to dream dreams that for madness and audacity rivalled those of poppy-eaters”
― Jack London

“Görünürde hiçbir değişiklik olmadığı, her şeyin tekdüze yaşandığı günlerde Buck, havanın yavaş yavaş soğuduğunu hissediyordu. Bir sabah geminin pervanesi durdu ve heyecanlı bir hareketlilik başladı. Buck ve diğer köpekler gemideki bu hareketliliğin farkına vardılar. Ne olduğunu anlamaya çalışırken, François geldi, hepsinin boynuna birer ip bağladı, onları güverteye çıkardı. Buck adımını atınca, çamura basmış gibi oldu. Hırlayarak ayağını geri çekti. Yerdeki bu beyaz çamur gökyüzünden dökülüyordu. Buck, anlam vermeye çalışarak başını indirip kokladı, sonra yaladı, dilinde önce soğuk, ardından yakıcı bir etki bırakı ve hemen suya dönüştü. Ne olduğunu bir türlü anlayamadı. Birkaç kez aynı şeyi yaptı. Çevreden izleyenler bu haline çok güldüler; Buck neden güldüklerini anlamadı ve utandı. O gün hayatı boyunca ilk kez kar gördü.”
― Jack London, The Call of the Wild / White Fang

“He was a large, fleshy man, weighing at least two hundred pounds, and he quickly became a faithful representation of a quivering jelly mountain of fat.”
― Jack London, The Heathen

“From the great Jack London: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” What inspires you?”
― Gayle Lynds

“Despite everything, every piece of Alaska sang to me. I remembered every curve in the trails, every tree in the forest. It was familiar to me, comfortable. The more I thought about leaving it, the less I liked the idea. This was my home.”
― Summer Lane, Running with Wolves

“It might be in a saloon with jingled townsmen, or with a genial railroad man well lighted up and armed with pocket flasks, or with a bunch of alki stiffs in a hang-out. Yes; and it might be in a prohibition state...”
― Jack London, John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs

“This out of all will remain –
They have lived and have tossed:
So much of the game will be gain,
Though the gold of the dice has been lost.”
― Jack London, Love of Life

“All the world is topsy-turvy, and it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.”
― Jack London , The Scarlet Plague

“As he piled wood on the fire he discovered an appreciation of his own body which he had never felt before. He watched his moving muscles and was interested in the cunning mechanism of his fingers. By the light of the fire he crooked his fingers slowly and repeatedly, now one at a time, now all together, spreading them wide or making quick gripping movements. He studied the nail-formation, and prodded the finger-tips, now sharply, and again softly, gauging the while the nerve-sensations produced. It fascinated him, and he grew suddenly fond of this subtle flesh of his that worked so beautifully and smoothly and delicately. Then he would cast a glance of fear at the wolf-circle drawn expectantly about him, and like a blow the realization would strike him that this wonderful body of his, this living flesh, was no more than so much meat, a quest of ravenous animals to be torn and slashed by their hungry fangs, to be sustenance to them as the moose and rabbit had often been sustenance to him.”
― Jack London, White Fang

“Thornton tenía la duda pintada claramente en el semblante, pero aquello despertó su espíritu de lucha, el que hace crecer al hombre ante las dificultades, le impide aceptar lo imposible y lo hace sordo a todo lo que no sea el clamor de la batalla.”
― Jack London, The Complete Short Stories of Jack London

“I can never forget that Chinese student I knew in Paris - Mr. Tcheou, I think it was. One day, upon asking him if he had ever read Hamlet, he answered: "You mean that novel by Jack London?”
― Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

“I didn't care, because I loved him, and that was the end of every argument and the beginning of every promise.”
― Summer Lane, Running with Wolves

“This was his severest fight, and though in the end he killed them both, he was himself half killed in doing it.”
― Jack London

“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

“And romantic it certainly was - the fog, like the gray shadow of infinite mystery, brooding over the whirling speck of earth; and men, mere motes of light and sparkle, cursed with an insane relish for work, riding their steeds of wood and steel through the heart of the mystery, groping their way blindly through the Unseen, and clamoring and clanging in confident speech while their hearts are heavy with incertitude and fear.”
― Jack London, The Sea Wolf

“Η ζωή είναι τόσο σύντομη. Θα προτιμούσα να τραγουδήσω ένα τραγούδι αντί να εξηγήσω χιλιάδες”
― Jack London

“مرگ قدم‌به‌قدم به‌طرف او می‌خزد، زمانی که آخرین قطعه هیزم حرارتش را از دست داد، نیرو گرفتن سرما آغاز می‌گردد. نخست پاها و پس‌ازآن دست‌ها تسلیم می‌شوند، و کرختی رفته‌رفته از دست‌وپا به تن‌اش راه می‌یابد. سرش به جلو، روی زانوان می‌افتد و راحت می‌شود. چیز ساده‌ای است. همه باید بمیرند.”
― Walter Pauk, The Law of Life: a Jamestown classic adapted from Jack London

“Just sit down and do it," is the philosophy of my every undertaking. After all, history is not only to be read – it is also written… by people who are not afraid to follow their dreams.”
― Mariia Manko, Finding Martin Eden: Travels to Find Myself

“Martin was turned on by knowledge. In the 21st century, such people have been termed "sapiosexuals": those who consider intelligence the most sexually attractive feature. That was exactly what I was to Martin; this was what Martin Eden was.”
― Mariia Manko, Finding Martin Eden: Travels to Find Myself

“On the one hand, passion is a bright flame, which inspires and nourishes us with an infinite amount of energy. At the same time, passion is directly related to scrupulous work, serious contemplation and active work of the brain. It is always a good thing when you know how to point passion in the right direction.”
― Mariia Manko, Finding Martin Eden: Travels to Find Myself

“I continued, regardless: "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another, with no loss of enthusiasm."
"What does that mean?"
"It takes real strength and ability to experience repeated failure and keep moving toward your goal, even when nothing appears to be coming of it, without losing enthusiasm. It signifies a desire for self-improvement; a need to constantly learn from your mistakes...”
― Mariia Manko, Finding Martin Eden: Travels to Find Myself

“Найди работу! Иди работай! Бедные, глупые рабы, — подумал он. Неудивительно, что мир принадлежал сильным. Рабы были одержимы своим собственным рабством. Работа для них была золотым фетишем, перед которым они падали ниц и поклонялись.”
― Jack London, Martin Iden