Jack London 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.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

It is so much easier to live placidly and complacently. Of course, to live placidly and complacently is not to live at all.

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

San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories.

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.

Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.

There’s only one way to make a beginning, and that is to begin; and begin with hard work, and patience, prepared for all the disappointВ­ment s.

Fear urged him to go back, but growth drove him on.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

The Law is a lie, and through it men lie most shamelessly.

Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.

I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.

Man rarely places a proper valuation upon his womankind, at least not until deprived of them.

To be able to forget means sanity.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?