He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.
Thus it was that in obedience to the law laid down by his mother, and in obedience to the law of that unknown and nameless thing, fear, he kept away from the mouth of the cave.
It was the worst hurt he had ever known.
Out of this pack-persecution he learned two important things: how to take care of himself in a mass-fight against him; and how, on a single dog, to inflict the greatest amount of damage in the briefest space of time.
His bondage had softened him. Irresponsibility had weakened him. He had forgotten how to shift for himself. The night yawned about him.
White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.
But under it all they were men, penetrating the land of desolation and mockery and silence, puny adventurers bent on colossal adventure, pitting themselves against the might of a world as remote and alien and pulseless as the abysses of space.
Men do not knowingly drink for the effect alcohol produces on the body. What they drink for is the brain-effect; and if it must come through the body, so much the worse for the body.
San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories.
You stand on dead men’s legs. You’ve never had any of your own. You couldn’t walk alone between two sunrises and hustle the meat for your belly.
And how have I lived? Frankly and openly, though crudely. I have not been afraid of life. I have not shrunk from it. I have taken it for what it was at its own valuation. And I have not been ashamed of it. Just as it was, it was mine.
Love is the sum of all the arts, as it is the reason for their existence.
Some sorts of truth are truer than others.
The greatest of the arts is the conquering of men.
Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.
There are things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice. The right and wrong of this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.
In a saturated population life is always cheap.
Ever bike? Now that’s something that makes life worth living!
Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.
Somehow, the love of the islands, like the love of a woman, just happens. One cannot determine in advance to love a particular woman, nor can one so determine to love Hawaii.