100+ Famous Great Gatsby Quotes That Inspire & Captivate Readers

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

“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.”

“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, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way.”

“It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it.”

“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.”

“He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.”

“The vitality of his illusion had gone beyond her, beyond everything.”

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

“He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”

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

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

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own.”

“Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York.”

“On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city.”

“The bar is in full swing, and cocktails pervade the garden outside.”

“People were not invited—they went there.”

“He looked like a billboard.”

“Life was beginning over again with the summer.”

“The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun.”

“She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life.”

“I’ve got a nice place here,” he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly.”

“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.”

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

“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams.”

“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.”

“He waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star.”

“Daisy drew further and further into herself, so he gave that up.”

“You always look so cool,” she said to Tom.”

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

“He had taken her under the red and white awning of the Hotel de Ville and then, in the museum, where works of art were ranged around them, they had sat down on two chairs facing each other.”

“He remembered the hallo of the apartment house and the elevator and the corridor and the door opening into the room full of midsummer flowers.”

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

“He had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security.”

“He spoke as if Daisy’s shadow were already cast upon the money.”

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

“He invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”

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

“It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.”

“He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do.”

“It was the kind of smile that represented nothing else so much as sheer, joyful relief.”

“He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free.”

“It was all very confused and disordered, yet there was something compelling about it.”

“He wanted to recover the whole blameless world and live it over.”

“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.”

“He invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent.”

“He was faithful to the end.”

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

“My family all died and I came into a good deal of money.”

“His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people.”

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

“He felt the invisible cloak of his uniform fall about him.”

“He was determined to be somebody.”

“He studied the habits of the wealthy with fascination.”

“He transformed himself into a man who could win Daisy.”

“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.”

“He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world.”

“Now he was a lonely man looking at the stars.”

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

“He stared alone at the puddle of water on the cement drive.”

“He had lost the one thing he ever really wanted.”

“He stood alone in the moonlight, watching the ripples on the Sound.”

“Nobody came to his funeral.”

“I was glad that he gave up on her, for she wasn’t worth it.”

“He lived alone in a huge mansion filled with strangers.”

“He was surrounded by people, yet utterly unknown.”

“He believed in dreams, but no one believed in him.”

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

“He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.”

“He talked a lot about the past.”

“The past clung to him like a wet coat.”

“He was determined to fix everything just the way it was before.”

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

“He had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”

“He wanted to erase the years between them.”

“He thought if he could just go back, everything would be perfect.”

“He was haunted by the ghost of what might have been.”

“He measured time not in years, but in memories.”

“He didn’t want the future—he wanted yesterday back.”

“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.”

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

“It’s a bad sign when you don’t know your chauffeur’s name.”

“The rich are different from you and me.”

“They had spent a year in France for no particular reason.”

“He wouldn’t settle in the city. He wanted a house.”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures.”

“The intimate revelations of young men… are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.”

“I see you feel deep and often, but I doubt if you’d ever suffer for a belief.”

“The division of the world into the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.”

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

“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.”

“He did not know that it was already behind him.”

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

“He had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”

“He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves.”

“He had believed in her, and he let himself believe.”

“He waited twenty minutes for the bell to ring.”

“He had given up the idea of being with her forever.”

“He realized too late that dreams don’t come true.”

“He held onto hope long after it was rational.”

“He believed in the possibility of magic.”

“Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures.”

“I’m inclined to reserve all judgments.”

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart.”

“He was one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they retreated back into their money.”

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

“He was better than the whole damn bunch put together.”

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

“I couldn’t forgive him or like him.”

“He was responsible for the death of Myrtle Wilson.”

“He had committed himself to the following of a grail.”