Love of Life Quotes

“When the unexpected does happen, however, and when it is of sufficiently grave import, the unfit perish. They do not see what is not obvious, are unable to do the unexpected, are incapable of adjusting their well-grooved lives to other and strange grooves. In short, when they come to the end of their own groove, they die.”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“He unwrapped his pack and the first thing he did was to count his matches.  There were sixty-seven.  He counted them three times to make sure.  He divided them into several portions, wrapping them in oil paper, disposing of one bunch in his empty tobacco pouch, of another bunch in the inside band of his battered hat, of a third bunch under his shirt on the chest.  This accomplished, a panic came upon him, and he unwrapped them all and counted them again.  There were still sixty-seven. He”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“And, dying, he declined to die.”
― Jack London, Love of Life

“This out of all will remain –
They have lived and have tossed:
So much of the game will be gain,
Though the gold of the dice has been lost.”
― Jack London, Love of Life

“The world slept, and it was like the sleep of death.”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“I say, Bill, I’ve sprained my ankle.” Bill staggered on through the milky water.  He did not look around.  The man watched him go, and though his face was expressionless as ever, his eyes were like the eyes of a wounded deer. The other man limped up the farther bank and continued straight on without looking back. ”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“The hunger pangs were sharp.  They gnawed and gnawed until he could not keep his mind steady on the course he must pursue to gain the land of little sticks. ”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“There were no trees, no bushes, nothing but a gray sea of moss scarcely diversified by gray rocks, gray lakelets, and gray streamlets.  The sky was gray.  There was no sun nor hint of sun.  He had no idea of north, and he had forgotten the way he had come to this spot the night before.  But he was not lost.  He knew that.  Soon he would come to the land of the little sticks.  He felt that it lay off to the left somewhere, not far—possibly just over the next low hill. He”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“hard as he strove with his body, he strove equally hard with his mind, trying to think that Bill had not deserted him, that Bill would surely wait for him at the cache.  He was compelled to think this thought, or else there would not be any use to strive, and he would have lain down and died. ”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“Though alone, he was not lost. ”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“I say, Bill, I’ve sprained my ankle.” Bill staggered on through the milky water.  He did not look around.  The man watched him go, and though his face was expressionless as ever, his eyes were like the eyes of a wounded deer. The”
― Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories

“And in that moment he lived all the life of gladness of which she had told him, and the laughter and the song, and as the sun went out of the sky above him, as in his old age, he knew the memory of her was sweet. And as even the memories dimmed and died in the darkness that fell upon him, he knew in her arms the fulfilment of all the ease and rest she had promised him. And as black night wrapped around him, his head upon her breast, he felt a great peace steal about him, and he was aware of the hush of many twilights and the mystery of silence.”
― Jack London, Love of Life

“Such was life, eh? A vain and fleeting thing. It was only life that pained. There was no hurt in death. To die was to sleep. It meant cessation, rest. Then why was he not content to die?”
― Jack London, Love of Life