She wanted to exist only as a conscious flower, prolonging and preserving herself

If he had to bring all the bitterness and hatred of the world into his heart, he was not going to be in love with her again.

There's no beauty without poignancy and there's no poignancy without the feeling that it's going, men, names, books, houses--bound for dust--mortal--

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

The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty.

Premature success gives one an almost mystical conception of destiny as opposed to will power-at its worst the Napoleonic delusion.

I can’t tell you just how wonderful she is. I don’t want you to know. I don’t want any one to know.