“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”
Jack London
This quote is commonly attributed to Jack London, but I have not been able to locate a primary source. Use with caution in academic or professional contexts.
“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.”
— Jack London Secondary source“Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”
— Jack London Primary source“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”
— Jack London Primary source“The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.”
— Jack London Primary source“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary source“Good criticism is very rare, and always precious.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Invert, always invert.”
— Carl Jacobi Disputed“It is never hopeless. But sometimes I cannot hope. I try always to hope but sometimes I cannot.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source