The extraordinary thing is not that people in a lifetime turn out worse or better than we had prophesied; particularly in America that is to be expected. The extraordinary thing is how people keep their levels, fulfill their promises, seem actually buoyed up by an inevitable destiny.
F. Scott FitzgeraldLater 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.
F. Scott FitzgeraldSo there was not an "I" anymore - not a basis on which I could organize my self-respect - save my limitless capacity for toil that it seemed I possessed no more.
F. Scott FitzgeraldMost 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.
F. Scott FitzgeraldLittle Montenegro! He lifted up the words and nodded at them-with his smile. The smile comprehended Montenegroโs troubled history and sympathized with the brave struggles of the Montenegrin people. It appreciated fully the chain of national circumstances, which had elicited this tribute from Montenegroโs warm little heart. My incredulity was submerged in fascination now; it was like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines.
F. Scott Fitzgerald