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Jack London Quotes

John Griffith "Jack" London was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone, including science fiction.

Some of his most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. He wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.

✵ 12. January 1876 – 22. November 1916
Jack London photo

Works

The Sea-Wolf
The Sea-Wolf
Jack London
Call of the Wild
Call of the Wild
Jack London
Martin Eden
Martin Eden
Jack London
John Barleycorn
John Barleycorn
Jack London
The Star Rover
The Star Rover
Jack London
The Iron Heel
The Iron Heel
Jack London
The Turtles of Tasman
The Turtles of Tasman
Jack London
To Build a Fire
To Build a Fire
Jack London
The Wit of Porportuk
The Wit of Porportuk
Jack London
A Piece of Steak
Jack London
Jack London: 77   quotes 47   likes

Famous 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 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.
Also included in Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, ed. Irving Shepard, Introduction, p. vii (1956)

“Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club.”

Jack London

"Getting into Print", first published in 1903 in The Editor magazine
Variant: You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Context: Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
Context: Fiction pays best of all and when it is of fair quality is more easily sold. A good joke will sell quicker than a good poem, and, measured in sweat and blood, will bring better remuneration. Avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible - if you care to see in print things you write. (In this connection don't do as I do, but do as I say.) Humour is the hardest to write, easiest to sell, and best rewarded... Don't write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.

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

Jack London

As quoted in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior (1991) by Dan Millman, p. 78
Life’s not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.
As quoted in "They Came to Write in Hawai‘i" by Joseph Theroux, in Spirit of Aloha (March/April 2007)

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

Jack London

The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.
Also included in Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, ed. Irving Shepard, Introduction, p. vii (1956)
Context: 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.

“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
Variant: Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

Jack London Quotes about life

“They were not half living, or quarter living. They were simply so many bags of bones in which sparks of life fluttered faintly.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

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

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

“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 book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

“And how have I lived? Frankly and openly, though crudely. I have not been afraid of life. I have not shrunk from it. I have taken it for what it was at its own valuation. And I have not been ashamed of it. Just as it was, it was mine.”

Jack London

“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 book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Twelve

“Life? Bah! It has no value. Of cheap things it is the cheapest.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

"The Sea-Wolf" (1904)

Jack London Quotes about men

“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”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea Wolf

“Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.”

Jack London book The Star Rover

The Star Rover
Variant: Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel

“…men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild (1903)

“Such is my outlook. I look forward to a time when man shall progress upon something worthier and higher than his stomach, when there will be a finer incentive to impel men to action than the incentive of to-day, which is the incentive of the stomach. I retain my belief in the nobility and excellence of the human. I believe that spiritual sweetness and unselfishness will conquer the gross gluttony of to-day. And last of all, my faith is in the working-class. As some Frenchman has said, "The stairway of time is ever echoing with the wooden shoe going up, the polished boot descending."”

Jack London

What Life Means to Me (1905), in Revolution and Other Essays (Macmillan, 1909)

“Against the wall, near the head of the bunk, was a rack filled with books. I glanced over them, noting with astonishment such names as Shakespeare, Tennyson, Poe, and De Quincey. There were scientific works too, among which were represented men such as Tyndall, Proctor, and Darwin.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Van Weydon discovers Wolf Larsen's astonishing array of reading matter. Chapter Five
The Sea-Wolf (1904)

“Too much is written by the men who can't write about the men who do write.”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden (1909), Ch. XXXII

Jack London: Trending quotes

“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

Variant: "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." also mentioned as Jack London quote in Ian Fleming book You Only Live Twice (1964), Ch. 21 : Orbit
Source: San Francisco Bulletin in 1916. Also included as an introduction to a compilation of Jack London short stories in 1956.

For Men , Time

“As one grows weaker one is less susceptible to suffering. There is less hurt because there is less to hurt.”

Jack London book The Star Rover

Source: The Star Rover

Heartbreaking , Hurtful , Suffering , Hurt

“He does not lose anything, for with the loss of himself he loses the knowledge of loss.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Wolf Larsen, Chapter Six
The Sea-Wolf (1904)

Knowledge , Loss

Jack London Quotes

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

Jack London

“He lacked the wisdom, and the only way for him to get it was to buy it with his youth; and when wisdom was his, youth would have been spent buying it.”

Jack London book A Piece of Steak

"A Piece of Steak" in The Best Short Stories of Jack London (1962) ISBN 0-449-30053-6

Wisdom , Youth , Way

“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 book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. VI

Drink

“I'd rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet.”

Jack London book The Turtles of Tasman

Source: The Turtles of Tasman

Singing , Heart

“Her own limits were the limits of her horizon; but limited minds can recognize limitations only in others. And so she felt that her outlook was very wide indeed, and that where his conflicted with hers marked his limitations; and she dreamed of helping him to see as she saw, of widening his horizon until it was identified with hers.”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden (1909), Ch. VIII
Context: It was just such uniqueness of points of view that startled Ruth. Not only were they new to her, and contrary to her own beliefs, but she always felt in them germs of truth that threatened to unseat or modify her own convictions. Had she been fourteen instead of twenty-four, she might have been changed by them; but she was twenty-four, conservative by nature and upbringing, and already crystallized into the cranny of life where she had been born and formed. It was true, his bizarre judgments troubled her in the moments they were uttered, but she ascribed them to his novelty of type and strangeness of living, and they were soon forgotten. Nevertheless, while she disapproved of them, the strength of their utterance, and the flashing of eyes and earnestness of face that accompanied them, always thrilled her and drew her toward him. She would never have guessed that this man who had come from beyond her horizon, was, in such moments, flashing on beyond her horizon with wider and deeper concepts. Her own limits were the limits of her horizon; but limited minds can recognize limitations only in others. And so she felt that her outlook was very wide indeed, and that where his conflicted with hers marked his limitations; and she dreamed of helping him to see as she saw, of widening his horizon until it was identified with hers.

Dreams , Help

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

Jack London

"Getting into Print", first published in 1903 in The Editor magazine
Context: Fiction pays best of all and when it is of fair quality is more easily sold. A good joke will sell quicker than a good poem, and, measured in sweat and blood, will bring better remuneration. Avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible - if you care to see in print things you write. (In this connection don't do as I do, but do as I say.) Humour is the hardest to write, easiest to sell, and best rewarded... Don't write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.

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

Jack London

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

Past , Tattoo

“To be able to forget means sanity.”

Jack London book The Star Rover

Source: The Star Rover

Forgetting

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

Jack London

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

Jack London Index:London - White Fang, 1906.djvu

Source: White Fang

Law , Strong

“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 book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild (1903)

Hostility , Strong

“A man with a club [bat] is a law-maker, a man to be obeyed, but not necessarily conciliated.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Law

“This expression of abandon and surrender, of absolute trust, he reserved for the master alone.”

Jack London Index:London - White Fang, 1906.djvu

Source: White Fang

“He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Nature , Time , Parting

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

Jack London

Variant: The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.

For Men

“My mistake was in ever opening the books.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea Wolf

Books

“Of her own experience she had no memory of the thing happening; but in her instinct, which was the experience of all mothers of wolves, there lurked a memory of fathers that had eaten their new-born and helpless progeny.”

Jack London Index:London - White Fang, 1906.djvu

Source: White Fang

Memory

“He was a man without a past, whose future was the imminent grave and whose present was a bitter fever of living.”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden

Past , Future

“more you drink
more you want”

Jack London
Drink

“I was jealous; therefore I loved.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea Wolf

Love

“I am. I was. I am not. I never am.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. I

“Judge them by their works. What have they done for mankind beyond the spinning of airy fancies and the mistaking of their own shadows for gods?”

Jack London book The Iron Heel

Ernest, Chapter One
The Iron Heel (1907)

God

“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 book To Build a Fire

"To Build a Fire" published as a collection of short stories in the book Lost Face (1910)

Life , Imagination

“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 book The Sea-Wolf

Wolf Larsen, Chapter Six
The Sea-Wolf (1904)

Life , World , Loss

“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)

World , Thinking

“Age is never so old as youth would measure it.”

Jack London book The Wit of Porportuk

"The Wit of Porportuk" in The Best Short Stories of Jack London (1962) ISBN 0-449-30053-6

Youth , Age

“Hist, now, between you an' meself and the stanchion there, this Wolf Larsen is a regular devil, an' the Ghost'll be a hell ship like she's always been since he had hold iv her.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Six

Hell , Wolf

“I was five years old the first time I got drunk.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. III

Time

“It was patent that this terrible man was no ignorant clod, such as one would inevitably suppose him to be from his exhibitions of brutality. At once he became an enigma.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Five

“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) ISBN 0-449-30053-6

Wisdom , Justice

“But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called -- called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild (1903)

Love , Books , Sleep , Time

“My first thought was that a man who had come through a collision and rubbed shoulders with death merited more attention than I received.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Two

Death

“Then one can't make a living out of poetry?"
"Certainly not. What fool expects to? Out of rhyming, yes.”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden (1909), Ch. XXXII

Fools

“He was not immoral, but merely unmoral.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Ten

“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 book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter One

Women

“There are, broadly speaking, two types of drinkers. There is the man whom we all know, stupid, unimaginative, whose brain is bitten numbly by numb maggots; who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants…. The other type of drinker has imagination, vision. Even when most pleasantly jingled he walks straight and naturally, never staggers nor falls, and knows just where he is and what he is doing. It is not his body but his brain that is drunken.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. II

Stupidity , Imagination , Nature

“"I only remember one part of the service," he said, "and that is 'And the body shall be cast into the sea.'”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

So cast it in."
Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Three

Parting , Sea

“"The cap'n is Wolf Larsen, or so men call him. I never heard his other name. But you better speak soft with him. He is mad this morning. The mate-" But he did not finish. The cook had glided in.”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Two

Men , Wolf , Madness , Cooking

“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 book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. V

Men , Alcohol , Drink

“Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”

Jack London Index:London - White Fang, 1906.djvu

White Fang (1906)

Life

“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 book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Ten

Hate , Fear , Loneliness

“Wolf - tis what he is. He's not blackhearted like some men. 'Tis no heart he has at all. Wolf. just Wolf, tis what he is. D'ye wonder he's well named?”

Jack London book The Sea-Wolf

Source: The Sea-Wolf (1904), Chapter Six

Men , Wolf , Heart

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