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Jack London

Jack London Quotes

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Famous Jack London Quotes

“But this is not a world of free freights. One pays according to an iron schedule--for every strength the balanced weakness; for every high a corresponding low; for every fictitious god-like moment an equivalent time in reptilian slime. For every feat of telescoping long days and weeks of life into mad magnificent instants, one must pay with shortened life, and, oft-times, with savage usury added.”

WorldLongMomentsPayWeekLowsWeaknessMadInstantIronBalancedMagnificentSavagesSchedulesFeatsCorrespondingLong DaySlimeUsury
Book:John Barleycorn
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“Life creeps slowly upward.... When some forgotten inventor of the older world smote his rival or enemy with a branch of wood and found that it was good and thereafter made a practice of smiting rivals and enemies with branches of wood, then, and on that day, artificiality may be said to have begun. Then, and on that day, was begun a revolution destined to change the history of life. Then, and on that day, was laid the cornerstone of that most tremendous of artifices, CIVILIZATION!”

WorldMayMadeSaidFoundEnemyPracticeRevolutionCivilizationForgottenWoodsBranchesDestinedRivalsInventorCreepsCornerstonesArtificeArtificialityHistory Of Life
Book:The Kempton-Wase Letters
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“The pitch to which he was aroused was tremendous. All the fighting blood of his breed was up in him and surging through him. This was living., though he did not know it. He was realizing his own meaning in the world; he was doing that for which he was made.... He was justifying his existence, than which life can do no greater; for life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”

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Book:The unabridged Jack London
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“Had the cub thought in man-fashion, he might have epitomized life as a voracious appetite, and the world as a place wherein ranged a multitude of appetites, pursuing and being pursued, hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, all in blindness and confusion, with violence and disorder, a chaos of gluttony and slaughter, ruled over by chance, merciless, planless, endless.”

MenWorldMightChanceViolenceFashionEatingChaosEndlessConfusionDisorderAppetiteHuntingMultitudesBlindnessPursuedSlaughterGluttonyHuntedCubs
Book:White Fang
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“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.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Jack London (Illustrated)
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“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. It was an old song, old as the breed itself--one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad.”

WorldFirstsLongHas BeensMightSongStarsExistenceHalfLandKeysSnowMinorsFrozenMight Have BeenDefianceNumbFrostOverheadPleadingWailingAuroraOld SongHuskies
Book:Five Classic Animal Adventures: The Jungle Book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, The Call of the Wild, The Wind in the Willows, and Black Beauty
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“[Speaking to a group of wealthy New Yorkers] A million years ago, the cave man, without tools, with small brain, and with nothing but the strength of his body, managed to feed his wife and children, so that through him the race survived. You on the other hand, armed with all the modern means of production, multiplying the productive capacity of the cave man a million times — you are incompetents and muddlers, you are unable to secure to millions even the paltry amount of bread that would sustain their physical life. You have mismanaged the world, and it shall be taken from you.”

MenWorldYearsMeanChildrenBodyHandsRaceBrainMillionsTakenWifeGroupsModernAmountCapacityYears AgoToolsProductionsBreadSecureProductiveWealthySurvivedCavesNew YorkersMultiplying
Author:Jack London
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