100+ Best Great Gatsby Quotes – Timeless Lines That Capture the American Dream

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.”

“He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.”

“It had seemed as close as a star to the moon.”

“No amount of fire or fundamental originality can transcend the facts of birth and breeding.”

“Americans, then, are always anxious to improve their economic status.”

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.”

“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.”

“Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.”

“He wanted nothing less than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.”

“Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly.

“I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.”

“The rich get richer and the poor get—children.”

“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people.”

“Civilization’s going to pieces,” cracked Tom one afternoon in July.

“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”

“High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl…”

“He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it.”

“The pearls were around her neck, and soon afterward he was married to her.”

“She had a lovely face… when she moved her hand, the rings on her fingers sparkled like glistening eyes.”

“His gorgeous pink suit made him look like a baby playing dress-up.”

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

“You always look so cool,” she said, glancing at him.

“He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.”

“If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him.”

“I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

“Her voice is so full of money—it’s like the jingle of coins.”

“I love her, old sport. You don’t understand. I truly love her.”

“He looked at her as if he’d never seen her before.”

“One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling.”

“He remembered the kiss, the moment her mouth touched his, how time stopped.”

“He wanted to repeat the past? Why, of course you can!”

“They were seated side by side, reading magazines—he flipping through the pages restlessly.”

“Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”

“Youth and the future seemed so close I could hardly tell them apart.”

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

“He wanted nothing less than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’”

“Five years next November.”

“Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back.”

“The wind blew out the lamp, and we were left in darkness.”

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

“He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time.”

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.”

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

“Nobody came to Gatsby’s funeral.”

“I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone.”

“He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it.”

“He looked lonely, standing there in the moonlight.”

“The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of those who guessed at his corruption.”

“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction.”

“He stared at it in a half-fascinated way.”

“He had intended, probably, to take the house, but he had changed his mind.”

“I called up Daisy from the office next morning, but she and Tom had gone away early with no address.”

“After two years I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day, only as an endless drill of police and photographers and newspaper men.”

“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified.”

“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.”

“He must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.”

“His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people.”

“He was Mr. Nobody from Nowhere.”

“I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West—all dead now.”

“I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time.”

“Even alone he wasn’t lonely—he was engaged in some elaborate reverie.”

“He had changed his name at the age of seventeen.”

“He knew that when he kissed this girl, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.”

“He wanted to repeat the past? Why, of course you can!”

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.”

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.”

“He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way.”

“He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close.”

“If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him.”

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.”

“He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.”

“He was acutely aware of the time wasted.”

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something.”

“He wanted nothing less than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’”

“He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion.”

“He knew that when he kissed this girl, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.”

“He was left with his hands full of silence.”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.”

“Civilization’s going to pieces,” cracked Tom one afternoon in July.

“The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river.”

“The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high.”

“The only crazy I was, was whenever I was near you.”

“People disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other.”

“I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.”

“It’s a small step from buying stocks to bootlegging.”

“The moral sense of the community is one of the oldest things in the world.”

“The truth was that Gatsby was overwhelmingly in love.”

“The secret to happiness is not doing what you love, but loving what you do.”

“The whole town is desolate, and I think I’m going mad.”

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

“I’m still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

“Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.”

“He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.”

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled.”

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”

“I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.”

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.”

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

“You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.”

“He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.”

“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified.”

“After two years I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day, only as an endless drill of police and photographers.”

“You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”

“I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone.”

“I called up Daisy from the office next morning, but she and Tom had gone away early with no address.”

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.”

“He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.”

“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction.”