Quotes from Jack London

Straight away he raced, with Dolly, panting and frothing, one leap behind; nor could she gain on him, so great was his terror, nor could he leave her, so great was her madness.

That was a page read and turned over; I was busy now with this new page, and when the engine whistled on the grade, this page would be finished and another begun; and so the book of life goes on, page after page and pages without end—when one is young.

In noaptea aceea, Colt Alb strapunse tacerea cu un urlet prelung. Isi atinti botul spre stelele reci, impartasindu-le durerea lui.

La vita non è sempre questione di tenere in mano delle buone carte ma, a volte, di saper giocare bene una mano svantaggiosa.

And there were easements and satisfactions. To have a full stomach, to doze lazily in the sunshine–such things were remuneration in full for his ardours and toils, while his ardours and tolls were in themselves self-remunerative. They were expressions of life, and life is always happy when it is expressing itself. So the cub had no quarrel with his hostile environment. He was very much alive, very happy, and very proud of himself.

Then arises the third and inexorable question: If Civilisation has increased the producing power of the average man, why has it not bettered the lot of the average man? There can be one answer only—MISMANAGEMENT.

Surely there can be little in this world more awful than the spectacle of a strong man in the moment when he is utterly weak and broken.

And then, in splendor and glory, came the great idea. He would write. He would be one of the eyes through which the world saw, one of the ears through which it heard, one of the hearts through which it felt.

Cuando un hombre y una mujer desean unir sus corazones, pueden rodar cabezas e incluso caer reinos, pero ellos no renunciaran

Compared with White Fang, they were frail and flabby, and clutched life without any strength in their grip. White Fang had come straight from the Wild, where the weak perish early and shelter is vouchsafed to none. In neither his father nor his mother was there any weakness, nor in the generations before them.

With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence.

the workingman, being selfish, wants all he can get in the division. The capitalist, being selfish, wants all he can get in the division. When there is only so much of the same thing, and when two men want all they can get of the same thing, there is a conflict of interest between labor and capital. And it is an irreconcilable conflict. As long as workingmen and capitalists exist, they will continue to quarrel over the division.

Too many thousands of opened books yawned between them and him. He had exiled himself.

He could not endure a prolonged contact with another body.  It smacked of danger.  It made him frantic.  He must be away, free, on his own legs, touching no living thing. 

Do you know," he added, "I feel sorry for Mr. Butler. He was too young to know better, but he robbed himself of life for the sake of thirty thousand a year that's clean wasted upon him. Why, thirty thousand, lump sum, wouldn't buy for him right now what ten cents he was layin' up would have bought him, when he was a kid, in the way of candy an' peanuts or a seat in nigger heaven.

All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb were in peril. There was imperative need to be constantly alert; for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.

These limitations and restraints were laws. To be obedient to them was to escape hurt and make for happiness.

Such verdicts are crimes against truth. The Law is a lie, and through it men lie most shamelessly.

I'd rather be ashes than dust

She was pure, it was true, as he had never dreamed of purity; but cherries stained her lips.

There is a greater strength than wealth, and it is greater because it cannot be taken away. Our strength, the strength of the proletariat, is in our muscles, in our hands to cast ballots, in our fingers to pull triggers.

Because of his very great love, he could not steal from this man, but from any other man, in any other camp, he did not hesitate an instant; while the cunning with which he stole enabled him to escape detection.

It was idle, he knew, to get between a fool and his folly;

We took up a collection and sent a telegram to the authorities of that town. The text of the message was that eighty-five healthy, hungry hoboes would arrive about noon and that it would be a good idea to have dinner ready for them.