Jack London; The Call of the Wild, To Build A Fire, and White Fang

"He did not know why, but he felt oppressed by the vague sense of impending calamity"

"He was beaten (he knew that) ; but he was not broken"

"There was nothing the matter with them, except that they were dead tired. It was not the dead-tiredness that comes through brief and excessive effort, from which recovery is a matter of hours; but it was the dead-tiredness that comes through the slow and prolonged strength drainage of months of toil. There was no power of recuperation left, no reserve strength to call upon. It had been all used, the last least bit of it"

"It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch"

"It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life"

"The business of love was at hand- even a sterner and crueler business than that of food getting"