What drives a man to chase a dream woven from the past, and how tightly are love and ambition tangled in a world shimmering with illusion?
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby plunges us into the Roaring Twenties, a world of intoxicating wealth and gnawing emptiness. Through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, we witness the enigmatic Jay Gatsby’s relentless pursuit of his lost love, Daisy Buchanan, amidst the glittering, careless society of West Egg and East Egg.
This meticulously curated collection presents 86 unique quotes, verified with page numbers from the authorized Scribner edition. Organized by chapter, these lines capture the novel’s enduring power—its exploration of the American Dream, social stratification, love, betrayal, and the haunting echoes of the past.
Sourced meticulously from the edition noted below, these quotes are a window into Fitzgerald’s masterful prose and the unforgettable characters he created.
Nick Carraway arrives in West Egg, poised on the edge of a world brimming with wealth, secrets, and the magnetic pull of his mysterious neighbor.
Chapter 1: Nick’s Arrival and the Glitter of Dreams
Entering the opulent world of the Buchanans and the enigmatic aura of Gatsby, Nick Carraway begins his summer of revelation, where surface glamour barely conceals underlying tensions and unspoken desires.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway quoting his father), Theme: Social Class, Privilege, Judgment, Page 1
This foundational advice shapes Nick’s narrative lens, establishing a tone of cautious observation tempered by an awareness of social disparity.
“the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Authenticity, Youth, Communication, Page 2
“I am 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.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Morality, Class, Inequality, Page 2
“Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Tolerance, Hope, Judgment, Page 2
Nick connects his inclination to reserve judgment with an inherent optimism, a belief in the potential good despite unequal beginnings.
“If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the ‘creative temperament’–it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No–Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Jay Gatsby), Theme: Hope, Romanticism, Tragedy, Dreams, Page 2
This crucial passage establishes Gatsby’s defining characteristic—his extraordinary capacity for hope—while foreshadowing the tragic end born from the destructive forces surrounding his dream.
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Renewal, Optimism, Beginnings, Page 4
“There was so much to read, for one thing, and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Vitality, Opportunity, Youth, Page 4
“Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Perspective, Limitation, Focus, Page 4
“one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty−one that everything afterward savors of anti−climax.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Tom Buchanan), Theme: Decline, Privilege, Peaked Potential, Page 6
Nick’s sharp observation captures Tom’s entitled stagnation, suggesting his past achievements overshadow any potential for future growth.
“Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered ‘Listen,’ a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Allure, Deception, Voice as Symbol, Page 9
This introduces the captivating, yet potentially hollow, quality of Daisy’s voice, a recurring motif representing her surface charm and the allure of wealth.
“The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise–she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression–then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room. ‘I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.’ She laughed again, as if she said something very witty, and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’ve heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Charm, Facade, Performance, Page 8
“Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Longing, Inattention, Fleeting Time, Page 11
“For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened – then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Beauty, Transience, Illusion, Page 13-14 (Note: Spans across page break in some editions)
“I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan about her daughter), Theme: Gender Roles, Cynicism, Societal Expectations, Page 17
Daisy’s startling comment reveals her disillusionment with her social position and the limited, perhaps safer, role she perceives for women.
“I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything…Sophisticated — God, I’m sophisticated!”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Privilege, Facade, Boredom, Cynicism, Page 17
“We heard it from three people, so it must be true.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Rumor, Gullibility, Social Proof, Page 19
“As for Tom, the fact that he ‘had some woman in New York’ was really less surprising than that he had been depressed by a book. Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Tom Buchanan), Theme: Infidelity, Intellectual Decay, Hypocrisy, Page 20
Between the city’s grime and the opulent facade, Nick glimpses the moral decay festering beneath the surface of the elite world.
Chapter 2: Tom’s Betrayals in the Valley of Ashes
Journeying through the bleak Valley of Ashes, a symbol of industrial waste and forgotten lives, Nick is thrust into the sordid reality of Tom Buchanan’s affair with Myrtle Wilson, exposing the raw class tensions and moral compromises that underpin the era’s glamour.
“He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Tom Buchanan about George Wilson), Theme: Contempt, Class Superiority, Arrogance, Page 26
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Ambivalence, Observation, Outsider Status, Page 35
Nick articulates his complex role as both participant and observer, captivated yet disturbed by the moral ambiguities he witnesses.
“All I kept thinking about, over and over, was ‘You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Myrtle Wilson), Theme: Mortality, Desire, Carpe Diem (twisted), Page 36
Myrtle’s desperate thought reflects her yearning for a more vibrant existence, justifying her affair as an escape from life’s limitations.
Amidst the dazzling chaos of Gatsby’s parties, Nick encounters the man himself, an enigma wrapped in charisma and speculation.
Chapter 3: The Dazzle of Gatsby’s Parties
Nick attends one of Gatsby’s legendary parties, a whirlwind of music, champagne, and anonymous faces. He finally meets Gatsby, whose captivating smile offers a glimpse of the powerful hope beneath the mystery, while Jordan Baker reveals her careless nature.
“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Extravagance, Illusion, Ephemerality, Page 39
“There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars… [truncated for brevity – full passage describes party logistics] …The party has begun.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Opulence, Facade, Excess, Roaring Twenties, Pages 39-41
This extended description establishes the immense scale and superficial energy of Gatsby’s parties, hinting at both their allure and underlying emptiness.
“It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator about Gatsby), Theme: Mystery, Gossip, Reputation, Page 44
“I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Owl-eyed man), Theme: Absurdity, Excess, Intellectualism (mocked), Page 46
“He smiled understandingly–much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Jay Gatsby’s smile), Theme: Charisma, Connection, Perception, Hope, Page 48
Fitzgerald masterfully captures the magnetic, almost magical quality of Gatsby’s persona through the description of his smile, hinting at its power to inspire belief.
“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker), Theme: Irony, Social Dynamics, Privacy, Page 49
“I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye… At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others—poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner—young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Loneliness, Yearning, Urban Experience, Empathy, Page 56
Nick finds both excitement and a profound sense of isolation in the city’s anonymity, connecting his own feelings to the unfulfilled lives around him.
“I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others–young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Isolation, Empathy, Lost Potential, Page 56-57
“Most affectations conceal something eventually, even though they don’t in the beginning.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Deception, Facade, Authenticity, Page 57
“I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Jordan), Theme: Emotion, Restraint, Attraction, Page 57
“Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Jordan Baker), Theme: Morality, Gender Stereotypes, Judgment, Page 58
“It takes two to make an accident.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker), Theme: Responsibility, Carelessness, Rationalization, Page 58
Jordan’s comment reveals her casual disregard for accountability, foreshadowing later events and embodying the carelessness of her social class.
“I hate careless people. That’s why I like you.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker to Nick Carraway), Theme: Carelessness, Irony, Attraction, Page 58
“…and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Jordan Baker), Theme: Caution, Emotion, Self-Restraint, Page 58
“Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Honesty, Self-Perception, Reliability (of narrator), Page 59
Nick’s self-assessment as honest invites the reader to trust his narration, yet also subtly questions the nature of honesty itself in a world of facades.
Beneath the carefully constructed facade, Gatsby’s true story—and the singular obsession driving him—begins to surface.
Chapter 4: Gatsby’s Rise and Hidden Longings
Gatsby reveals fragments of his fabricated past to Nick, attempting to craft an image of inherited wealth and worldly experience. Jordan Baker later fills in the crucial missing piece: Gatsby’s consuming love for Daisy and his desperate hope for a reunion.
“So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby), Theme: Illusion vs. Reality, Perception, Page 64
“You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jay Gatsby to Nick), Theme: Loneliness, Past Trauma, Rootlessness, Page 67
“With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Long Island City… [Police interaction demonstrating Gatsby’s influence]… ‘I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Policeman), Theme: Influence, Power, Corruption, Mystery, Page 68
“The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Allure of the City, Possibility, American Dream, Page 68
“The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker recounting to Nick about Gatsby and Daisy), Theme: Romance, Memory, Idealized Love, Page 75
“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don’t see or care.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker to Nick), Theme: Control, Observation, Social Strategy, Page 77
“Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby), Theme: Purpose, Revelation, Love as Motivation, Page 78
Nick realizes Gatsby’s immense wealth isn’t aimless extravagance but serves a single, profound purpose: reclaiming Daisy.
“He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths – so that he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby), Theme: Obsession, Sacrifice, Longing, Proximity, Page 78
“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Human Nature, Pursuit, Social Dynamics, Page 79
Nick offers a cynical yet insightful categorization of human motivations within the restless society he observes.
“Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms. Her wan scornful mouth smiled and I drew her up again, closer, this time to my face.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway), Theme: Loneliness, Desire, Contrast, Fleeting Connection, Page 80
The long-awaited reunion arrives, drenched in rain and impossible expectations, forcing Gatsby’s dream to confront Daisy’s reality.
Chapter 5: Gatsby’s Dream Rekindled with Daisy
Nick facilitates the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy at his cottage. The awkward, rain-soaked meeting gives way to Gatsby showcasing his opulent mansion, culminating in a moment where the reality of Daisy struggles against the “colossal vitality of his illusion.”
“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Daisy), Theme: Allure, Voice as Symbol, Atmosphere, Page 85
“Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: American Identity, Class Consciousness, Independence, Page 88
“He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby and Daisy), Theme: Obsession, Illusion vs. Reality, Materialism vs. Love, Page 91
Gatsby’s material world seems to fade in the face of Daisy’s presence, highlighting that his wealth was merely a means to an end—her.
“‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. ‘You always have a green light that burns at the end of your dock.’ Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to him, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted things had diminished by one.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, narration by Nick), Theme: Dreams vs. Reality, Symbolism (Green Light), Loss of Enchantment, Page 92-93
This pivotal moment marks the deflation of the green light’s symbolic power as Gatsby confronts the reality of Daisy’s presence, replacing the dream with actuality.
“I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan to Gatsby), Theme: Fantasy, Whimsy, Escapism, Page 94
“The rich get richer and the poor get – children.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Klipspringer, overheard by Nick), Theme: Class Inequality, Social Commentary, Cynicism, Page 95
“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams — not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. 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. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby), Theme: Illusion, Disappointment, Idealization, Limits of Reality, Page 95-96
Nick astutely observes that no real person could ever live up to the idealized vision Gatsby constructed over five years of longing.
“His hand took hold of hers, and as she said something low in his ear he turned toward her with a rush of emotion. I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn’t be over-dreamed —that voice was a deathless song.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby and Daisy), Theme: Love, Enchantment, Voice as Symbol, Idealization, Page 96
As Gatsby tries to recreate the past, the chasm between his idealized memory and the present reality becomes painfully clear.
Chapter 6: Gatsby’s Roots and Shattered Illusions
Nick reveals Gatsby’s true origins as James Gatz, detailing his self-invention driven by ambition and his mentorship under Dan Cody. A tense party scene highlights the incompatibility of Gatsby’s dream world with the cynical reality of Tom and Daisy’s circle, culminating in Gatsby’s defiant belief that the past can be repeated.
“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.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby), Theme: Self-Invention, Ambition, American Dream, Idealism, Page 98
“It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Disillusionment, Perspective, Change, Page 104
“‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jay Gatsby to Nick), Theme: Optimism, Delusion, Past vs. Present, American Dream, Page 110
Gatsby’s iconic, desperate assertion encapsulates his core motivation and tragic flaw: his unwavering belief in the power to recapture a lost moment.
“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. 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. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway narrating Gatsby’s memory), Theme: Love, Idealization, Transformation, Loss of Innocence, Page 110-111
On a day simmering with heat and unspoken resentments, the tensions between Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy finally boil over, setting the stage for irreversible tragedy.
Chapter 7: Clashing Hearts and Tragic Turns
The sweltering heat mirrors the escalating tension as the group confronts each other at the Plaza Hotel. Gatsby demands Daisy choose him, but she falters. The drive back descends into tragedy as Daisy, driving Gatsby’s car, hits and kills Myrtle Wilson, though Tom later implies Gatsby was responsible.
“‘You dream, you. You absolute little dream.’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan to her daughter), Theme: Affection, Innocence, Projection, Page 117
“‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?’ cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan), Theme: Restlessness, Futility, Boredom, Lack of Purpose, Page 118
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker), Theme: Renewal, Optimism, Cyclical Nature, Page 118
“‘Ah,’ she cried, ‘you look so cool.’ Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table. ‘You always look so cool,’ she repeated. She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Daisy Buchanan to Gatsby, narration by Nick), Theme: Love, Betrayal, Nonverbal Communication, Tension, Page 119
“‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of–’ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. 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.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby about Daisy), Theme: Wealth, Allure, Class, Voice as Symbol, Page 120
Gatsby’s blunt assessment reveals the source of Daisy’s captivating charm—it’s inextricably linked to her wealth and the privileged world she represents.
“It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Health, Humanity, Perspective, Page 124
“There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind…”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway reflecting on Tom), Theme: Clarity, Perception, Simplicity vs. Complexity, Page 125
“I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it – overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Jordan Baker), Theme: Allure of the City, Excess, Opportunity, Page 125
“‘I love you now — isn’t that enough?’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Daisy Buchanan to Gatsby), Theme: Love, Insufficiency, Present vs. Past, Page 132
“‘Want any of this stuff? Jordan?… Nick?’ I didn’t answer. ‘Nick?’ he asked again. ‘What?’ ‘Want any?’ ‘No… I just remembered that today’s my birthday.’ I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway), Theme: Aging, Reflection, Milestone, Insignificance, Page 135
Amidst the emotional wreckage, Nick’s personal milestone passes unnoticed, highlighting his peripheral role and the self-absorption of the others.
“So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Fate, Tragedy, Foreshadowing, Page 136
In the quiet aftermath of violence, Gatsby clings to a fading hope, unaware that the consequences of the previous day are rapidly closing in.
Chapter 8: Gatsby’s Dream Crumbles in Vengeance
Gatsby waits vigilantly outside Daisy’s house, revealing to Nick the story of their early love. Nick departs, offering Gatsby a final, validating compliment. Consumed by grief and misled by Tom, George Wilson finds Gatsby at his pool and enacts his fatal revenge before taking his own life.
“He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a ‘nice’ girl could be.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby’s perception of Daisy), Theme: Illusion, Complexity, Naivety, Page 149
“‘I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport… Well, there I was, ‘way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn’t care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?’ … They had never been closer in their month of love, nor communicated more profoundly one with another, than when she brushed silent lips against his coat’s shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, gently, as though she were asleep.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Jay Gatsby relating past to Nick, narration by Nick), Theme: Love, Sacrifice, Ambition vs. Love, Intimacy, Page 150
“all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Daisy), Theme: Indecision, Pressure, Societal Expectations, Love vs. Security, Page 151
“She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Daisy after marrying Tom), Theme: Reassurance, Conflict, Social Pressure, Page 151
“He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway narrating Gatsby’s memory), Theme: Loss, Desperation, Past vs. Present, Memory, Page 153
“‘They’re a rotten crowd,’ I shouted, across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway to Gatsby), Theme: Loyalty, Judgment, Moral Corruption, Validation, Page 154
Nick’s only compliment to Gatsby stands as a final affirmation of Gatsby’s inherent worth compared to the moral decay of the East Egg elite.
“The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of those who guessed at his corruption – and he had stood on those steps, concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them good-by.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby), Theme: Integrity vs. Corruption, Misjudgment, Dreams, Facade, Page 154
“‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: George Wilson to Myrtle, thinking of the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg), Theme: Justice, Despair, Divine Judgment (perceived), Page 159
“If that was true he must have felt that 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 and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about…like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway imagining Gatsby’s final moments), Theme: Disillusionment, Tragedy, Loss of Dreams, Reality vs. Illusion, Page 161
Nick’s poignant imagining captures the utter desolation of Gatsby’s world collapsing as his dream dies, leaving only a harsh, meaningless reality.
With Gatsby gone, the superficial world he inhabited reveals its true emptiness, leaving Nick to confront the wreckage and retreat from the East’s moral wasteland.
Chapter 9: The Wreckage of Dreams
Nick struggles to arrange Gatsby’s funeral, finding indifference and abandonment from Gatsby’s former associates. He encounters Tom, confirming his role in Gatsby’s death, and ultimately judges Tom and Daisy as careless people. Nick decides to return to the Midwest, reflecting on Gatsby’s dream and the enduring human struggle against the past.
“At first I was surprised and confused; then as he lay in his house and didn’t move or breathe or speak hour upon hour it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested–interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which everyone has some vague right at the end.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Duty, Isolation, Responsibility, Human Connection, Page 164
“He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Gatsby’s father), Theme: Mortality, Acceptance, Age, Page 168
“‘Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.’”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Meyer Wolfsheim), Theme: Loyalty, Regret, Hypocrisy, Friendship, Page 171-172
“Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Owl-eyed man at Gatsby’s funeral), Theme: Mourning, Nature, Blessing (ironic?), Page 174
“When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. That’s my middle-west – not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: Nostalgia, Home, Midwest vs. East, Return, Page 175-176
“‘You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to makes such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride.’ ‘I’m thirty,’ I said. ‘I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor.’ She didn’t answer. Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Characters: Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway), Theme: Disappointment, Carelessness, Honesty, Maturity, Endings, Page 177
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway about Tom and Daisy), Theme: Irresponsibility, Privilege, Moral Corruption, Consequences, Page 179
Nick delivers his scathing final judgment on the Buchanans, condemning their destructive entitlement and lack of accountability.
“And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes–a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: American Dream, Wonder, Past vs. Present, Lost Promise, Page 180
“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… And one fine morning– So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, (Character: Nick Carraway as narrator), Theme: American Dream, Persistence, Futility, Past vs. Future, Hope, Page 180
The novel’s iconic closing lines encapsulate the paradoxical nature of the American Dream—an enduring pursuit of a future forever receding, pulling us inevitably back toward the past.
Conclusion: The Unconquered Spirit and the Receding Dream
These 86 quotes chart Jay Gatsby’s luminous and ultimately tragic trajectory. Fitzgerald masterfully uses language to expose the dazzling allure and crushing weight of the American Dream, the intoxicating power of love and illusion, and the stark realities of social class in the Jazz Age. Gatsby’s unwavering hope, Daisy’s captivating carelessness, Tom’s brute entitlement, and Nick’s evolving judgment offer a timeless commentary on aspiration and disillusionment.
Revisiting these potent lines reminds us why The Great Gatsby remains a cornerstone of American literature—its exploration of our deepest desires and the powerful currents that often pull us back, “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” For a concise overview of the plot, explore our full summary of The Great Gatsby.
A Note on Page Numbers & Edition:
We meticulously sourced these quotes from The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition (Scribner, November 17, 2020, ISBN-13: 978-1982149482). Like Gatsby reaching for the green light, page numbers can seem elusive across different printings. Always anchor your analysis by verifying against your specific edition for essays or citations!
Jeremy Mortis, founder of Ageless Investing, applies a rigorous analytical approach (the AAM framework) to distill timeless wisdom and contextualized quotes from classic literature, saving you time while deepening understanding. Learn more about Jeremy’s unique background and methodology on his author bio page.