F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes

Powerful F. Scott Fitzgerald for Daily Growth

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), an American novelist and short story writer, is renowned for his insightful portrayal of the Jazz Age and the American Dream. Born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Mary McQuillan and Edward Fitzgerald, he was the eldest of three children. Early influences included the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, as well as his mother's romantic tales about the old South. Fitzgerald attended Newman Preparatory School and later Princeton University but left without graduating. It was during this time that he began writing seriously, with a focus on poetry. His first published work, "Benz-Polka" and other poems, appeared in 1915 in the school's humor magazine, Nassau Literary Magazine. In 1917, Fitzgerald enlisted in the Army, serving as an officer in the infantry during World War I. His experiences during this time provided material for his novel "This Side of Paradise" (1920), a semi-autobiographical work that established him as a significant literary figure. Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre in 1920, and their turbulent relationship was a significant influence on much of his work. Their story is woven into his most famous novel, "The Great Gatsby" (1925), which offers a critique of the American Dream and the moral decay underlying the nation's materialistic pursuit. Despite his early success, Fitzgerald struggled with alcoholism throughout his life, leading to financial difficulties. He continued writing until his death in 1940 due to a heart attack at the age of 44. Posthumously published works include "Tender is the Night" (1934) and "The Last Tycoon" (published in 1940 after Fitzgerald's death). Fitzgerald's work remains relevant today for its exploration of themes such as youth, love, wealth, and the American Dream. His lasting impact on American literature is undeniable.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." - The Great Gatsby

This quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald from "The Great Gatsby" conveys a sense of futility in the face of life's relentless flow. In the context of the novel, it signifies Jay Gatsby's unattainable dream, his constant striving towards the past (his love for Daisy), while the world around him keeps moving forward. It can also be interpreted as a universal theme, suggesting that we are all like boats, constantly battling against the current of time, being inexorably drawn back into our own pasts, which can limit our ability to move forward and achieve true happiness if we are not careful.

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." - Short Story: "The Rich Boy"

In this quote, F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that the extremely wealthy, or 'the rich boy', possess unique qualities and perspectives that distinguish them from ordinary individuals like us. This separation is rooted in their upbringing, experiences, and the privileges afforded by immense wealth, shaping their values, worldview, and life choices in a manner that sets them apart. The quote invites us to acknowledge this difference, yet also encourages empathy and understanding of their unique societal position.

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." - Unknown Source

This quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that a new beginning or rebirth occurs as autumn arrives, symbolizing change, renewal, and the potential for fresh starts in life. The crispness of autumn, with its cooler temperatures and vibrant colors, signifies a time of introspection, reflection, and preparation, making it an ideal time for personal growth and transformation.

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." - The Great Gatsby

This quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald from "The Great Gatsby" signifies renewal and a fresh start, reminiscent of the arrival of summer. It suggests a hopeful belief that life, much like the rapid growth of trees and the brightness of sunlight during the summer season, has the potential to begin anew. This interpretation highlights Fitzgerald's use of symbolism and his exploration of the human desire for change and redemption in the face of time passing.

"It's not that we've forgotten the past. It's just that we're so afraid there'll be nothing left if we ever get to it." - Tender is the Night

This quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the fear of exploring one's past due to the apprehension that it might have been tainted, traumatic or disillusioning. The implication is that delving into the past may reveal unpleasant truths about oneself and others, potentially leaving little positivity behind. This fear of unearthing painful memories often leads individuals to avoid introspection and growth, thereby hindering personal development.

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Defeat, Single, Never, Final

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Discipline, Think, Natural, Tastes

Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Men, Mannerisms, Known, Mixture

The easiest way to get a reputation is to go outside the fold, shout around for a few years as a violent atheist or a dangerous radical, and then crawl back to the shelter.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Shelter, Radical, Violent, Fold

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Own, Like, Cut, Points

Her body calculated to a millimeter to suggest a bud yet guarantee a flower.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Her, Guarantee, Bud, Suggest

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Intelligence, Mind, Opposed, First-Rate

It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sad, Memory, Inadequate, Harmonious

Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Childhood, Some, Which, Faculty

After all, life hasn't much to offer except youth, and I suppose for older people, the love of youth in others.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Love, People, Suppose, Older People

Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. Discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Discouragement, Stiff, Joint, Arthritis

Scratch a Yale man with both hands and you'll be lucky to find a coast-guard. Usually you find nothing at all.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hands, Lucky, Find, Scratch

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Inspirational, Over, Shows, Vitality

The victor belongs to the spoils.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Success, Victor, Belongs, Spoils

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds, they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Family, Wounds, Splits, Heal

Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk, rather like the respect of simple races for the insane... There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Curious, Like, Rather, Awe-Inspiring

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hide, Caves, Which, Hills

Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Feet, Having, Large, Incessantly

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Generation, Next, Critics, Schoolmaster

My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Generation, Next, Always, Writes

I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Romantic, Will, Last, Sentimental

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Himself, At Least One, Least, Suspects

I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thought, Week, Been, Sober

Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Life, Pleasure, Come, Struggle

When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lose, Matter, May, Depths

For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Other, Awhile, Keats, Humming

The faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Over, Maps, Unhappiness, Relief

It's not a slam at you when people are rude, it's a slam at the people they've met before.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

People, Rude, Before, Slam

No such thing as a man willing to be honest - that would be like a blind man willing to see.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Blind, See, Would, Blind Man

The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Work, Other, Idea, Any Other Way

Though the Jazz Age continued it became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children's party taken over by the elders.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Over, Became, Though, Affair

A big man has no time really to do anything but just sit and be big.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Man, Big, No Time, Sit

Only remember west of the Mississippi it's a little more look, see, act. A little less rationalize, comment, talk.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Look, More, Less, Comment

To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

My Life, Took, Months, Collect

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

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Young, Success Is, Very, Compensation

It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Profound, Race, Occurred, Between

To a profound pessimist about life, being in danger is not depressing.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Pessimist, Profound, About, Depressing

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won't save us any more than love did.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Love, Want, More, Thirties

His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hours, Let Us, His, Invented

You can stroke people with words.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Words, People, You, Stroke

No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Conference, Lot, Ever, Foolish

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.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Business, Brokerage, Minus, Admitting

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Busy, Only, Pursuing, Pursued

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Art, Small, Contempt, Great Man

A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Cards, Pretty, Plays, Plain

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Personality, Unbroken, Successful

Forgotten is forgiven.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Forgiveness, Forgiven, Forgotten

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Luck, Chance, Other, Obnoxious

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Swimming, Writing, Holding, Breath

Switzerland is a country where very few things begin, but many things end.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Country, Switzerland, Very, Few Things

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Never, Charm, Riches, Combined

Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Never, Notes, Arrangement, Played

The world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

World, Country, Beaches, Clubs

Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Communication, Mind, Genius, Ability

You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Want, Say, Because, Write

Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Me, Tragedy, Show, Write

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

New Year's, Take, Then, Takes

Action is character.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Character, Action

No decent career was ever founded on a public.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Career, Public, Ever, Founded

Everybody's youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dream, Everybody, Form, Chemical

I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it, on the inside.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Me, Like, Wear, Heart

What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon? And the day after that, and the next thirty years?

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Next, After, Ourselves, Afternoon

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Morning, Soul, Always, After

There are no second acts in American lives.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lives, Acts, American Lives, American

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