"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."
"When, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolf-like, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. And his cadences were their cadences, the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning of the stillness, and the cold, and dark."
3 likes
Source: Jack London (1992). “The Call of the Wild and White Fang”, p.17, Wordsworth Editions
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Jack London
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."
"As for the primitive, I hark back to it because we are still very primitive. How many thousands of years of culture, think you, have rubbed and polished at our raw edges? One probably; at the best, no more than two. And that takes us back to screaming savagery, when, gross of body and deed, we drank blood from the skulls of our enemies, and hailed as highest paradise the orgies and carnage of Valhalla."
"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
"Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past."
"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."