Quotes from work
Martin Eden

Jack London Original title Martin Eden (Swedish, 1918)

Moving tale of an ambitious young man who struggles hard to fulfil his dreams only to realize that they were just an illusion. The significance of this novel is enhanced by its autobiographical connotations. In this masterpiece, London offers a gripping commentary on the American culture, its hypocrisy and materialism. Hypnotic!

“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

“But I am I. And I won't subordinate my taste to the unanimous judgment of mankind”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden

“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

“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

“Much of this he strove to express to Ruth, and shocked her and made it clear that more remodelling was necessary. Hers was that common insularity of mind that makes human creatures believe that their color, creed, and politics are best and right and that other human creatures scattered over the world are less fortunately placed than they. It was the same insularity of mind that made the ancient Jew thank God he was not born a woman, and sent the modern missionary god-substituting to the ends of the earth; and it made Ruth desire to shape this man from other crannies of life into the likeness of the men who lived in her particular cranny of life.”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden (1909), Ch. VIII

“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.