affluence

alcohol

beginning

charity

civilization

contentment

desire

inspiration

intoxication

life

love

mercy

monster

motherhood

possession

purpose of life

pursuit

restlessness

San Francisco

sanity

satisfaction

socialism

soul

tattoo

truth

writing

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

journalist

novelist

social activist

cause of death

suicide

Mexican

war correspondent

autobiographer

essayist

screenwriter

science fiction writer

children's writer

travel writer

prosaist

poet

religion

atheism

diarist

race / ethnicity

Americans of the United States

natural causes

homicide

is never so old as youth would measure it.

Age is never so old as youth would measure it. Jack London

 tells truth, but its truth is not normal.

Alcohol tells truth, but its truth is not normal. Jack London

is made only by beginning; that is, to begin with hard work and patience, prepared for all the disappointments.

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 disappoint ments. Jack London

is not a bone given to a dog. It is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

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

 began on the day early man first 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.

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! Jack London

1s 2urpose is to impose human law upon environment until it becomes machine-like in its regularity. The objectionable is eliminated, the inevitable is foreseen. One is not even made wet by the rain nor cold by the frost... while death, instead of stalking about gruesome and accidental, becomes a prearranged pageant, moving along a well-oiled groove to the family vault, where the hinges are kept from rusting and the dust from the air is swept continually away.

The effect of civilization is to impose human law upon environment until it becomes machine-like in its regularity. The objectionable is eliminated, the inevitable is foreseen. One is not even made wet by the rain nor cold by the frost... while death, instead of stalking about gruesome and accidental, becomes a prearranged pageant, moving along a well-oiled groove to the family vault, where the hinges are kept from rusting and the dust from the air is swept continually away. Jack London

is a pain which seeks easement through possession.

Desire is a pain which seeks easement through possession. Jack London

is of two types:: The stupid, unimaginative stumbling man whose body is drunk and the imaginative visionary whose brain is drunken.

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

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

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

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

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well. Jack London

1s 2nly value is the value that life puts upon itself, and it is of course overestimated, for it is of necessity prejudiced in its own favour.

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

is that meaningless, cheap thing whereby life eats life till the strongest and most piggish life is left.

Life' Bah! It has no value. Of cheap things it is the cheapest. Everywhere it goes begging. Nature spills it out with a lavish hand. Where there is room for one life, she sows a thousand lives, and it's life eats life till the strongest and most piggish life is left. Jack London

is a restlessness, an unsatisfaction. It cannot, by its very nature, be content. It is pain and desire while possession is easement and fulfillment.

Love cannot in its very nature be peaceful or content. It is a restlessness, an unsatisfaction. I can grant a lasting love just as I can grant a lasting unsatisfaction... but the lasting love cannot be coupled with possession, for love is pain and desire and possession is easement and fulfilment. Jack London

is a flux of states of consciousness, a flow of passing thoughts, each thought of self another self, a myriad thoughts, a myriad selves, a continual becoming but never being, a will-of-the-wisp flitting of ghosts in ghostland.

Man is a flux of states of consciousness, a flow of passing thoughts, each thought of self another self, a myriad thoughts, a myriad selves, a continual becoming but never being, a will-of-the-wisp flitting of ghosts in ghostland. Jack London

is defined by the short but, from the very first moment he used a rock to crack a marrow-bone. That act, and the riding downtown in an automobile lies only a difference of degree.

Our ape-like and arboreal ancestors entered upon the first of many short cuts. To crack a marrow-bone with a rock was the act which fathered the tool, and between the cracking of a marrow-bone and the riding down town in an automobile lies only a difference of degree. Jack London

's proper function is to live, not to exist, to be ashes rather than dust, to burn out in a brilliant blaze rather than be stifled by dry-rot.

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 function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. Jack London

 did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.

Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Jack London

is not always visibly obvious. Not all the monsters have fangs.

Not all the monsters have fangs. Jack London

is a state of consciousness so wide apart from pursuit that the two can never be united.

Pursuit and possession are accompanied by states of consciousness so wide apart that they can never be united. Jack London

Jack LondonThinkers

Jack London