30 Best 'Call Of The Wild' Quotes From The Novel And Movie

Supriya Jain
Dec 12, 2023 By Supriya Jain
Originally Published on Feb 05, 2021
Edited by Luca Demetriou
Portrait of a red deer stag calling during rutting season in autumn, UK.
Age: 0-99
Read time: 6.8 Min

'Call Of The Wild' is a story about believing in yourself and fighting for what is right.

Buck is a large, gentle dog, abducted from his comfortable life in California and sold to a mail man. The mailman wanted the dog for the delivery of the mail across the Yukon where he accepts his new life as a sled dog with the pack.

The story is narrated through the eyes of Buck- St Bernard/Scotch Collie. Just when he gets used to his new life, the mailman is rendered jobless due to telegram service being started, and Buck is again sold to a mean and inexperienced gold prospector. He is working the dogs to exhaustion and is cruel to them in all other possible ways. Buck refuses to take the sled further, and the evil guy is about to shoot him when John Thornton saves him. Under John Thornton, Buck gets his health back and becomes loyal to him. After a skirmish at the salon, John Thorton decides to go beyond the Yukon map along with Buck. They find an old cabin in a valley and settle there. The cruel gold-digger keeps looking for them, believing that John Thorton is hiding gold.

Buck is having visions of dark wolf and is attracted to a white female wolf during this time. He is undecided whether he should explore this more or keep on living. Thorton eventually decides he is going home and has come to say good-bye to Buck. But the evil gold digger catches up with John Thornton and tries to kill him. In the meanwhile, Buck is sleeping with the white female wolf and her pack. Buck sees the gold digger and kills him by throwing him in the raging fire of the cottage. John Thorton wants Buck to continue living for himself and tells him, "it's ok boy, you're home." He becomes the leader of the pack and embraces 'Call Of The Wild'.

Enjoy these 'Call Of The Wild' quotations and 'Call Of The Wild' book quotes. For more quotes like 'Call of the Wild' quotes, you can also read Harrison Ford quotes and 'Lion King' quotes
 

The Best 'Call Of The Wild' Quotes

This incredible story, told metaphorically through a dogs' life, takes on a journey akin to our lives too. We must listen to our 'Call Of The Wild' and embrace the wilderness. We can find our pack and don't need to fit in anywhere. Below are some of the quotes from the 'Call Of The Wild' book and movie.

Wild Giant Huntsman Spider.

1. “They were not half living, or quarter living. They were simply so many bags of bones in which sparks of life flutter faintly.”

- Jack London.

2. “The Yukon was straining to break loose the ice that bound it down.”

- Jack London.

3. “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.

4. "She didn’t want to be around me. I didn’t want to be around anybody, so I came up here. And I met you."

- John Thornton.

5. "We all fall down together, but we get up as one."

- Bob Thorton.

6. "I hope to find peace. But I know as I am there may be no home for me in this world."

-John Thornton.

7. “He was less attentive to his owner's commands than he was to his own instincts.”

– John Thornton.

8. “Out here, under an open sky, Buck felt a cold he'd never known.”

– John Thornton.

9. “Doing the work of a sled dog brought Buck confidence and joy. Now he belonged to a pack.”

–   John Thornton.

10. "In this realm, Buck was king."

–John Thorton.

11. "He was less attentive to his Masters commands than he was to his own instincts."

–John Thorton.

12. "Buck had to learn to listen to their voices. Tonight he would begin to hear his own."

–John Thorton.

13. "The world's a dangerous place. You never know what's coming. You never know."

- John Thornton.

14. "He was less attentive to his master’s commands than he was to his own instincts."

- John Thornton.

John Thornton Quotes From 'The Call Of The Wild'

While Bucks is the hero of the movie, John Thornton is the eyes through which we see him become one. Thornton is a hero for many people, too, for his perseverance, morals, and kindness. Here are some more the 'The Call Of The Wild' movie quotes from John Thornton that will motivate you to emerge triumphantly in any hostile setting.

https://unsplash.com/photos/e9hbo4NtKJ0

(By joining the pack of wolves, Buck finally reaches his true destination.)

15. "Buck stood no chance against a man with a club. He knew that. He was beaten. But he was not broken.’’

- John Thornton.

16. "Sometimes the best journeys begin when the path ends."

- John Thornton.

17. "The Yukon is a dangerous place. You never know what’s coming. I came up here because I didn’t want to be around anyone. And then I met Buck...He was a dog like no other...He’d been spoiled, and he’d suffered. But he could not be broken.

- John Thornton.

18. "You should let him have a minute. Doesn’t look like he’s ever seen snow before."

- John Thornton.

19. "During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical."

- John Thornton.

20. "They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang. "

- John Thornton.

21. "In the main they were the wild wolf husky breed. Every night, regularly, at nine, at twelve, and three, they lifted a nocturnal song, a weird and eerie chant, in which it was Buck's delight to join."

- John Thornton.

22. “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.”

― Jack London.

23. “But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called -- called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”

― Jack London.

24. “Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time.”

― Jack London.

25. "When he moaned and sobbed, it was with the pain of living that was of old the pain of his wild fathers, and the fear and mystery of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery."

- John Thornton.

26. "For the pride of trace and trail was his, and sick unto death, he could not bear that another dog should do his work."

- John Thornton.

27. "He had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law of club and fang."

- John Thornton.

28. "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 in 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.."

― Jack London.

29. "The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life."

― Jack London.

30. "He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived."

Jack London.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 'The Call Of The Wild' quotes, then why not look at 'Kung Fu Panda' quotes or ['How To Train Your Dragon' quotes].

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Written by Supriya Jain

Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

Supriya Jain picture

Supriya JainBachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

As a skilled member of the Kidadl team, Shruti brings extensive experience and expertise in professional content writing. With a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Punjab University and an MBA in Business Administration from IMT Nagpur, Shruti has worked in diverse roles such as sales intern, content writer, executive trainee, and business development consultant. Her exceptional writing skills cover a wide range of areas, including SOP, SEO, B2B/B2C, and academic content.

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