F. Scott Fitzgerald: I know myself," he cried, "but that is all-

Life cracked like ice!

F. Scott Fitzgerald

cracked ice

Sometimes I think that idlers seem to be a special class for whom nothing can be planned, plead as one will with them - their only contribution to the human family is to warm a seat at the common table.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

special class thinking

America is a willingness of the heart.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

willingness heart america

People invariably chose inimitable people to imitate.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

people

Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

pride war dirty

From the ruins, lonely and inexplicable as the sphinx, rose the Empire State Building.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

sphinx lonely rose

I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

fundamentals missing father

He had possessed the arrogance of a tall member of a short race, with no obligation save to be tall.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

members arrogance race

All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever; you can't live forever.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

great-gatsby-love forever thinking

...I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

eye house thinking

I don't think he was ever happy unless someone was in love with him, responding to him like filings to a magnet, helping him to explain himself, promising him something. What it was I do not know. Perhaps they promised that there would always be women in the world who would spend their brightest, freshest, rarest hours to nurse and protect that superiority he cherished in his heart.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

nurse heart thinking

I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

veteran judgment patience

I found something! Courage--just that; courage as a rule of life and something to cling to always.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

rules-of-life found

The hangover became a part of the day as well allowed-for as the Spanish siesta.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

hangover wells

I am too much a moralist at heart, and really want to preach at people in some acceptable form, rather than entertain them.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

want heart people

Prose talent depends on having something to say and an interesting, highly developed way of saying it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

talent way interesting

Everywhere we go and move on and change, something's lost--something's left behind. You can't ever quite repeat anything, and I've been so yours, here--

F. Scott Fitzgerald

behind-you lost moving

Happiness is the relief after extreme tension

F. Scott Fitzgerald

extremes tension relief

When she saw him face to face their eyes met and brushed like birds’ wings. After that everything was all right, everything was wonderful, she knew that he was beginning to fall in love with her.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

birds-wings falling-in-love eye

They were stars on this stage, each playing to an audience of two.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

stage stars two