Even when everything seems rotten you can't trust that judgment. It's the sum of all your judgments that counts.

I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all--Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.

Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it!

Her fine high forehead sloped gently up to where her hair, bordering it like an armorial shield, burst into lovelocks and waves and curlicues of ash blonde and gold. Her eyes were bright, big, clear, wet and shining, the colour of her cheeks was real, breaking close to the surface from the strong young pump of her heart. Her body hovered delicately on the last edge of childhood -- she was almost eighteen, nearly complete, but the dew was still on her.

When I see a beautiful shell like that I can't help feeling a regret about what's inside it.

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

I didn't realize it, but the days came along one after another, and then two years were gone, and everything was gone, and I was gone.