To Build a Fire Quotes

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“This man did not know cold. Possibly, all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold 107 degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in their significances.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Man always gets less than he demands from life.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“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.” - Jack London”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Strength is an empty shell. One cannot violate the promptings of one’s nature without having that nature recoil upon itself. Show me a man with a tattoo, and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Any man who was a man could travel alone.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant 80 odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man’s frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on, it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man’s place in the universe. Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear-flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks. Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely 50 degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“That the work of a drinker who had no intention of stopping drinking should become a major propaganda piece in the campaign for Prohibition is surely one of the ironies in the history of alcohol.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he had laughed at him at the time! That showed one must not be too sure of things.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“او در مورد چیزهای زندگی هوشیار و سریع بود، اما فقط در مورد چیزها و نه در مورد اهمیت آنها در زندگی.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Puisqu'il était condamné à geler, et que c'était irrévocable, il pouvait aussi bien accepter décemment l'épreuve. Une grande paix résulta pour lui de cette résolution, cependant qu'il sentait une somnolence le gagner et sa tête vaciller.
C'est, après tout, songea-t-il, une sensation délicieuse de s'endormir dans la mort. C'est comme si l'on avait absorbé un anesthésique.
La mort par congélation n'est pas aussi affreuse qu'on le disait. Il y avait d'autres façons, bien pires, de mourir.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“He knew that such thoughts caused a feeling of fright in him and he was afraid of such feelings.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Öldükten sonra acı duyulmazdı. Ölmek, uyumak demekti”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Öldükten sonra acı duyulmazdı. Ölmek, uyumak demekti.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“نمی‌توانی منتظر وحی بمانی! باید بیرون بروی و دنبال آن بگردی”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“زندگی فقط داشتن کارت‌های خوب نیست، گاهی بازی کردن با یک دست بد هم هست.”
― Jack London, To Build a Fire

“Strong as were the elements, he was stronger.”
― Castro, To Build a Fire