Quote#Time
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark…
Quote byJack London · 1876–1916
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1..
English (original)
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 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
More from Jack London
I love the flesh. I'm a pagan. “Who are they who speak evil of the clay? The very stars are made of clay like mine!”
Life? Bah! It has no value. Of cheap things it is the cheapest.
I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.
Judge them by their works. What have they done for mankind beyond the spinning of airy fancies and the mistaking of their own shadows for gods?
Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.
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.