Important Quotes

"I hope she'll be a fool–that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." (Chapter 1)

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." (Chapter 1)

"Involuntarily I glanced seaward–and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock." (Chapter 1)

"This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." (Chapter 2)

"I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life." (Chapter 2)

"I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there." (Chapter 3)

"Can't repeat the past? Why, of course you can!" (Chapter 6)

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter–tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther." (Chapter 9)