"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. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. 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. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Jack London, ' (1903)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(emotion)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ecstasy (emotion)
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ecstasy (emotion) →
Related Quotes
"O ye that look on Ecstasy The Dancer lone and white, Cover your charmèd eyes, for she Is Death’s own acolyte. She dan…"
"Life is mainly grief and labour. Two things get you through. Chortling when it hits your neighbour, Whingeing when it…"
"Religion, as far as I could see, was chiefly concerned with “getting into Heaven.” A stockpile of prayers and could e…"
"People who identify strongly with their s frequently experience pleasure when they observe threatening members’ misfo…"
"The have a saying: “The misfortune of others tastes like honey.” The speak of joie maligne, a diabolical delight in o…"
"I coined the word "limerence." It was pronounceable and seemed to me and to two students to have a "fitting" sound. T…"
"The English language lacked a noun singular for the state of being love smitten, or having fallen in love, until Doro…"
"Writers have been philosophizing, moralizing, and eulogizing on the subject of "erotic," "passionate," "romantic" lov…"
"Reaction to limerence theory depends partly on acquaintance with the evidence for it and partly on personal experienc…"
"Tennov (1979) used the term limerence to refer to a kind of infatuated, all-absorbing passion — the kind of love that…"