Jack London Quotes

The most useless are those who never change through the years.

Adaptability is the simple secret of survival.

All men are partially buried in the grave of custom, and of some we see only the crown of the head above ground. Better are the physically dead, for they more lively rot. Even virtue is no longer such if it be stagnant. A man's life should be constantly as fresh as this river. It should be the same channel, but a new water every instant.

You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.

It's hard to plan for what comes next when what comes next is not something you planned for.

In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it's the fast fish which eats the slow fish.

Sometimes I wish they'd ask for my wisdom more often - there are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don't want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable - so painless. It's what they've chosen.

When we are constantly recreating our basic patterns of behavior and thought, we never have to leap into fresh air or onto fresh grass. Instead, we wrap ourselves in our own dark environment, where our only companion is the smell of our own sweat. In the cocoon, there is no dance, no walking or breathing. It is comfortable and sleepy, an intense and very familiar home.

Once upon a time there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. And they grew next to each other. And every day the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and he would say, "You're crooked. You've always been crooked and you'll continue to be crooked. But look at me! Look at me!" said the straight tree. He said, "I'm tall and I'm straight." And then one day the lumberjacks came into the forest and looked around, and the manager in charge said, "Cut all the straight trees." And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong and growing strange.

If you cling to an experience that cannot accommodate change, this can cause you to become a victim of that change. He who worships the past will remain there.

Tradition is laziness.

Man adapts himself to everything, to the best and the worst.

Growing up is a trap," snapped Dr. Robbins. "When they tell you to shut up, they mean stop talking. When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing. Reach a nice level plateau and settle there, predictable and unchanging, no longer a threat.

People who talk incessantly about "change" are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people.

Nature has a funny way of breaking what does not bend.

To exist is to adapt, and if one could not adapt, one died and made room for those who could.

Some people are so methodical that that is all they are or ever will be.

A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.

That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.

A rolling stone gathers no moss and therefore will not be derided as a moss-back. Roll as much as possible.

I went through an experience that taught me that as soon as you think that you know how your life is going to be, something in the universe will make you realize that you really are not that in control of it.

You're more likely to drown in the sea of sameness than get eaten by a shark while navigating new waters.

The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.

Working in lock-step simply isn't a good idea. Never has been, never will be.

Consistency is the horror of the world.