Jack London Quotes

For how many thousands of years now have we humans been what we insist on calling "civilized?" And yet, in total contradiction, we also persist in the savage belief that we must occasionally, at least, settle our arguments by killing one another.

I don't think we really gave barbarism a fair try.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

… savages … barbarians

Everywhere Bulgarians had passed, one sees only blood, dishonor and ruin …. It is a refinement of cruelty which the imagination refuses to comprehend.

No community ever did or ever can emerge unassisted by external helps from a state of utter barbarism into anything that can be called civilization

The history of the race, from infancy through its stages of barbarism, heathenism, civilization, and Christianity, is a process of suffering, as the lower principles of humanity are gradually subjected to the higher.

The soldier's lot is the most melancholy relic of barbarism (next to capital punishment) that lingers on among mankind.

A certain degree of progress from the rudest state in which man is found,—a dweller in caves, or on trees, like an ape, a cannibal, an eater of pounded snails, worms, and offal,—a certain degree of progress from this extreme is called Civilization.

Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood.

It is definitely a hard show [True Blood] to jump into the middle of, but luckily we have things like HBO Go now. It's not like you've missed it and now you're stuck. And I think once guys give it a shot - and you'll be able to speak to this better than I will - there's a lot of stuff that can be interesting to guys. There's a lot of action. Plenty of people are getting their heads chopped off.

When we learn to read, it's a real product of civilization and a civilized society. It affects your brain. It affects the way you think, and it gives you that capacity for self-reflection that you simply do not have without the agency of books.

I'm one, too," he said. "What?" He spit a wad of blood and mucus into the dirt. "A virgin." What a shock. "What makes you think I'm a virgin?" I asked. "You wouldn't have hit me if you weren't.

Civilization creates discontents; barbarism creates quick endings.

As men begin to grow civilized, they cease to be satisfied with mere taboos.

I took my mother's knife and played johnny johnny johnny on the playhouse floor. I was drunk, stabbed myself every few throws. I held my hand up and there was satisfaction at seeing my blood, the way there was when I saw the red gouges onmy face that people stared at and turned away. They were thinking I was beautiful, but they were wrong, now they could see how ugly and mutilated I was.

It's chaotic. I have heard blood-curdling screams, and every time I hear it I think someone's being brutally murdered, but I realize it's a werewolf.

It has taken seas of blood to drown the idol of despotism, but the English do not think they bought their laws too dearly.

Now you’re thinking like me. A little eye-gouging, some slit nostrils…I could seriously get into that. (Acheron)

Civilization does not have to perish. The brutes are winning only by default.

When you think of how much violence, how much blood... how much has been destroyed to create the great nations, America, Australia, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium - even India, Pakistan. Having destroyed so much to make them, we must have nuclear weapons to protect them - and climate change to hold up their way of life... a two-pronged annihilation project.

I see TV ads about detergents that can get blood stains out of your cloths. I say if you have blood stains on your cloths you should be thinking about something other than laundry.

The dripping blood our only drink, The bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

Hunting is a relic of the barbarism that once thirsted for human blood, but is now content with the blood of animals.

Just take a look around you: Blood is flowing in rivers and in such a jolly way you’d think it was champagne.