# Quote — Jack London, White Fang

> There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.”

- Author: [Jack London](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london.md)
- Book: [White Fang](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang.md)
- Page: 3
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/White_Fang#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/there-was-a-hint

## More from this book

> He was a ferocious man. He had been ill-made in the making. He had not been born right, and he had not been helped any by the moulding he had received at the hands of society. The hands of society are harsh, and this man was a striking sample of its handiwork. He was a beast.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/he-was-a-ferocious.md)

> They were his environment, these men, and they were moulding the clay of him into a more ferocious thing than had been intended by Nature. Nevertheless, Nature had given him plasticity. Where many another animal would have died or had its spirit broken, he adjusted himself and lived, and at no expense of the spirit.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/they-were-his.md)

> The bulldog's method was to hold what he had, and when opportunity favored to work in for more. Opportunity favored when White Fang remained quiet. When White Fang struggled, Cherokee was content merely to hold on."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/the-bulldogs-method.md)