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F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes

Writer

F. Scott Fitzgerald, a defining voice of the Jazz Age, explored ambition, love, and the allure of the American Dream in his writing. His quotes reflect his lyrical style and keen insight into desire, success, and disillusionment. Together, they offer timeless reflections on hope, identity, and the fragile beauty of aspiration.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
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They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.
From This Side of Paradise
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I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.
From The Great Gatsby
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Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.
From Tender Is the Night
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By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.
From The Great Gatsby
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I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.
From The Great Gatsby
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Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window.
From The Great Gatsby
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Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do; they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval.
From Tender Is the Night
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Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.
From The Great Gatsby
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He found himself remembering how on one summer morning they two had started from New York in search of happiness. They had never expected to find it, perhaps, yet in itself that quest had been happier than anything he expected forevermore. Life, it seemed, must be a setting up of props around one - otherwise it was disaster. There was no rest, no quiet. He had been futile in longing to drift and dream, no one drifted except to maelstroms, no one dreamed, without his dreams becoming fantastic nightmares of indecision and regret.
From The Beautiful and Damned
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If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
From The Great Gatsby
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Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home.
From The Great Gatsby
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So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.
From All the Sad Young Men
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If you spend your life sparing people’s feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you can’t distinguish what should be respected in them.
From Tender is the Night / The Last Tycoon
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Afterward she remembered the times when she had felt the happiest. The first time was when she and Dick danced together and she felt her beauty sparkling bright against his tall, strong form as they floated, hovering like people in an amusing dream—he turned her here and there with such a delicacy of suggestion that she was like a bright bouquet, a piece of precious cloth being displayed before fifty eyes.
From Tender Is the Night
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Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.
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You've got an awfully kissable mouth.
From Gatsby Girls
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It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.
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It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.
From This Side of Paradise
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The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.
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For what it's worth: it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over again.
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So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
From The Great Gatsby
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Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.
From This Side of Paradise
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I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.
From The Great Gatsby
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Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.
From Tender Is the Night
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By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.
From The Great Gatsby
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I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window.
From The Great Gatsby
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Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do; they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval.
From Tender Is the Night
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Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.
From The Great Gatsby
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He found himself remembering how on one summer morning they two had started from New York in search of happiness. They had never expected to find it, perhaps, yet in itself that quest had been happier than anything he expected forevermore. Life, it seemed, must be a setting up of props around one - otherwise it was disaster. There was no rest, no quiet. He had been futile in longing to drift and dream, no one drifted except to maelstroms, no one dreamed, without his dreams becoming fantastic nightmares of indecision and regret.
From The Beautiful and Damned
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If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
From The Great Gatsby
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Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home.
From The Great Gatsby
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So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.
From All the Sad Young Men
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If you spend your life sparing people’s feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you can’t distinguish what should be respected in them.
From Tender is the Night / The Last Tycoon
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Afterward she remembered the times when she had felt the happiest. The first time was when she and Dick danced together and she felt her beauty sparkling bright against his tall, strong form as they floated, hovering like people in an amusing dream—he turned her here and there with such a delicacy of suggestion that she was like a bright bouquet, a piece of precious cloth being displayed before fifty eyes.
From Tender Is the Night
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Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You've got an awfully kissable mouth.
From Gatsby Girls
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It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.
From This Side of Paradise
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The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For what it's worth: it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over again.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.
From This Side of Paradise
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.
From Tender Is the Night
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do; they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval.
From Tender Is the Night
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He found himself remembering how on one summer morning they two had started from New York in search of happiness. They had never expected to find it, perhaps, yet in itself that quest had been happier than anything he expected forevermore. Life, it seemed, must be a setting up of props around one - otherwise it was disaster. There was no rest, no quiet. He had been futile in longing to drift and dream, no one drifted except to maelstroms, no one dreamed, without his dreams becoming fantastic nightmares of indecision and regret.
From The Beautiful and Damned
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.
From All the Sad Young Men
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you spend your life sparing people’s feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you can’t distinguish what should be respected in them.
From Tender is the Night / The Last Tycoon
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Afterward she remembered the times when she had felt the happiest. The first time was when she and Dick danced together and she felt her beauty sparkling bright against his tall, strong form as they floated, hovering like people in an amusing dream—he turned her here and there with such a delicacy of suggestion that she was like a bright bouquet, a piece of precious cloth being displayed before fifty eyes.
From Tender Is the Night
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You've got an awfully kissable mouth.
From Gatsby Girls
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.
From This Side of Paradise
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For what it's worth: it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over again.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
From The Great Gatsby
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote