The Great Gatsby Quotes

• I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. – Daisy Buchanan
• So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. – Nick Carraway
• I’d adored him too much and all his white-collar attitudes. Now he was dead and the city would never be the same. – Nick Carraway
• His smile was one of those rare smiles that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced — or seemed to face — the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. – Nick Carraway
• I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties, there isn’t any privacy. – Jordan Baker
• I am glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. – Daisy Buchanan
• In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’ – Nick Carraway
• I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life. – Nick Carraway

Quotes about Love

• He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. – Nick Carraway
• For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened — then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk. – Nick Carraway
• He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. – Nick Carraway
• It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people. – Jay Gatsby
• I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. – Daisy Buchanan
• And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy. – Jordan Baker
• One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer: The rich get richer and the poor get–children. – Tom Buchanan
• She never loved you, do you hear? He cried. She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me! – Jay Gatsby

Inspirational Sayings

• I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires. – Nick Carraway
• You can’t repeat the past. – Jay Gatsby
• 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. – Nick Carraway
• It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy – it increased her value in his eyes. – Nick Carraway
• I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. – Jay Gatsby
• We walked around for a while until the streets became dark with something more than night. – Nick Carraway
• Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away. – Nick Carraway
• 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. – Nick Carraway
• There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired. – Nick Carraway
• You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me. – Nick Carraway
• There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired. – Nick Carraway
• She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all. – Nick Carraway
• He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. – Nick Carraway
• Daisy can’t come out to play. – Daisy Buchanan
• They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together. – Nick Carraway to Jay Gatsby
• Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. – Tom Buchanan
• Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can! – Jay Gatsby

Motivational Quotes

• It takes two to make an accident. – Jordan Baker
• Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. – Nick Carraway
• A little overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which that question deserves. – Nick Carraway
• He smiled understandingly, much more than understandingly. – Nick Carraway
• I was rather literary in college – one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the ‘Yale News.’ – Nick Carraway
• The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun. – Nick Carraway
• The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain. – Nick Carraway
• A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the washstand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. – Nick Carraway
• Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry. – Nick Carraway
• But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. – Nick Carraway
• Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans. – Nick Carraway
• The evening had made me light-headed and happy; I think I walked into the room with some idea of giving Gatsby a bath. – Nick Carraway

FAQ The Great Gatsby Quotes

How does the symbol of the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock in “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald relate to Gatsby’s perception of the American Dream?

The green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams, symbolizing the future that is always just out of reach. In the context of the American Dream, it embodies the promise of opportunities that seem so close yet are obstructed by societal and personal obstacles.

In “The Great Gatsby,” what does Nick mean when he reflects that Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us?

Nick suggests that Gatsby’s relentless hope for a future with Daisy, represented by the green light, mirrors the eternal pursuit of the American Dream, which retreats even as one believes they are getting closer, symbolizing the elusive nature of such aspirations.

Why do Tom and Daisy retreat back into their money or their vast carelessness, as described in “The Great Gatsby”?

Tom and Daisy retreat into their wealth and carelessness because it shields them from the consequences of their actions, allowing them to ignore the chaos they create and continue their lives of privilege without accountability.

What does Fitzgerald imply about the social elite through the characters of Daisy and Tom, who smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money?

Fitzgerald critiques the moral decay of the upper class, illustrating how Daisy and Tom, representing the social elite, recklessly damage lives around them and then use their wealth as a means to escape any consequences, reflecting their profound carelessness and detachment.

Describe the significance of the moment when Gatsby first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.

This moment is pivotal as it marks the beginning of Gatsby’s fixation on Daisy and everything she represents. It’s the point where his dream crystallizes, and he starts chasing what the light stands for—his personal vision of success and fulfillment.

What does Fitzgerald convey about Gatsby’s character when he describes Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light?

Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a man driven by an almost childlike wonder and an unwavering belief in the attainability of his dreams, underscored by his fixation on the green light which symbolizes his hopes for a future with Daisy.

How does the imagery of “whisperings and the champagne and the stars” contribute to the mood and setting in “The Great Gatsby”?

This imagery evokes a sense of the opulent, carefree, and illusion-filled parties at Gatsby’s mansion, capturing the hedonistic spirit of the Jazz Age and the superficial glamor of Gatsby’s world, which masks the emptiness and disillusionment of its inhabitants.