Quotes from F. Scott Fitzgerald

Oh, blessed are the simple rich, for they inherit the earth!

The particular weakness he indulged on this occasion was his need of excitement and stimulus from without.

He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.

And never be sorry--- thought Lois--- and never be sorry---

He was ashamed of baiting the man, realizing that the absurdity of the story rested in the immaturity of the attitude combined with the sophisticated method of its narration.

Apostasy implies an absolute damnation only on the supposition of a previous perfect faith. Does that fix it?

Charley was twenty-six, with that faint musk of weakness hanging about him that is often mistaken for the scent of evil.

It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . .

It's not a bad time, it's not one of the worst times of the day.

You are unsentimental, almost incapable of affection, astute without being cunning and vain without being proud.

I suppose that there's a caddish streak in every man that runs crosswire across his character and disposition and general outlook. With some men it's secret and we never know it's there until they strike us in the dark one night.

Sie dachte, ich wüsste viel, weil ich andere Dinge wusste als sie...

So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of those who guessed at his corruption—and he had stood on those steps, concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them good-by.

El sentido fundamental de la buena educación es inequitativamente repartido al nacer.

The compensation of a very early success is a conviction that life is a romantic matter. In the best sense one stays young.

There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything.

the green and cream twilight faded, and the fire-red, gas-blue, ghost-green signs began to shine smokily through the tranquil rain.

Daisy chantonnait avec l'orchestre, un murmure voilé, cadencé, et elle donnait à chaque mot un sens qu'il n'avait jamais eu, qu'il n'aurait jamais plus. Quand la mélodie montait vers l'aigu, sa voix se brisait doucement, pour reprendre aussitôt sur un ton plus bas, un ton de contralto, et l'air se chargeait, à chaque variation, d'une exquise bouffée de chaleur humaine.

This was plain as plain to Dick. He looked around, hoping his eye would catch on something, so that spirit instead of imagination could carry on for an hour. But there was nothing and after a moment he turned back to Collis. He has told Collis some of his current notions, and he was bored with his audience's short memory and lack of response. After half an hour of Collis he felt a distinct lesion of his own vitality.

One thing's sure and nothing's surer The rich get richer and the poor get—children.

Unknowingly she saw her own tragedies mirrored in his face.

You can't stop going with an old friend on account of rumors, and on the other hand I had no intention of being rumored into marriage.

The clean book bill will be one of the most immoral measures ever adopted. It will throw American art back into the junk heap.