“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?”
Ernest, Chapter One
The Iron Heel (1907)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jack London 77
American author, journalist, and social activist 1876–1916Related quotes

2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Context: For generations, we have done the hard work of protecting our own people, as well as millions around the globe. We have done so because we know that our own future is safer, our own future is brighter, if more of mankind can live with the bright light of freedom and dignity.
Tonight, let us give thanks for the Americans who are serving through these trying times, and the coalition that is carrying our effort forward. And let us look to the future with confidence and hope not only for our own country, but for all those yearning for freedom around the world.

“Mankind's greatest shadow is the incapability to have relationships.”

"The Dreamers"
Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
Context: The consolations of the vulgar are bitter in the royal ear. Let physicians and confectioners and servants in the great houses be judged by what they have done, and even by what they have meant to do; the great people themselves are judged by what they are. I have been told that lions, trapped and shut up in cages, grieve from shame more than from hunger.

Only the final bold section is connected to Laozi (see Ch. 17 of Tao Te Ching above). The origin of the added first section is unclear.
Misattributed

As quoted in Can A Smart Person Believe in God? (2004) by Michael Guillen, Ch. 7 : Hope Springs Eternal, p. 90

“God will judge us by our own thoughts and deeds, not by what others say about us.”
Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXXVIV : A Scheme of Escape; Helen to Little Arthur