Few books have shaped the American literary consciousness as thoroughly as "The Great Gatsby." You'd be hard-pressed to find a college student who hasn't read Fitzgerald's classic work, and just about everyone will recognize the astonishing beauty of its final lines:
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
His representations of life, love, and the human condition in this and his other phenomenal works are equally eloquent, offering unparalleled insight into the mad beauty of the world. So, in honor of this literary legend, born 119 years ago this September 24th, here are a few of his musings just about all of us can relate to:
On Love
“There is a moment—Oh, just before the first kiss, a whispered word—something that makes it worth while.”
“I love her, and that's the beginning and end of everything.”
“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn't beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.”
"All life is just a progression toward and then a recession from one phrase-- 'I love you”
“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.”
On Writing
“An artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully functional.”
“Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.”
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”
On Life
“It is not life that's complicated, it's the struggle to guide and control life.”
“So we'll just let things take their course, and never be sorry.”
“You musn’t confuse a single failure with a final defeat.”
“Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.”
“Don't let yourself feel worthless: often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think best of yourself; and don't worry about losing your "personality," as you persist in calling it: at fifteen you had the radiance of early morning, at twenty you will begin to have the melancholy brilliance of the moon, and when you are my age you will give out, as I do, the genial golden warmth of 4 p.m.”
And, next time you're turning up on campus, remember this wonderful line from The Beautiful and the Damned:
"Here's to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life."
