The Great Gatsby Quotes with Page Numbers

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. (Page 1)

Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. (Page 1)

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. (Page 2)

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. (Page 2)

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. (Page 9)

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. (Page 10)

He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. (Page 17)

I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. (Page 20)

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. (Page 179)

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 then one fine morning— (Page 180)

They’re a rotten crowd … You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together. (Page 162)

It was all very careless and confused. 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. (Page 179)

All the bright precious things fade so fast. And they don’t come back. (Page 180)

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. (Page 101)

I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. (Page 142)

I was within and without simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life. (Page 35)

A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand. (Page 39)

But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. (Page 60)

But he didn’t despise himself and it didn’t turn out all right. (Page 84)

Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams (Page 110)

His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. (Page 110)

I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. (Page 105)

For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras that set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes. (Page 104)

She brightened up as she recalled it—’Perhaps Daisy never went in for amour at all—and yet there’s something in that voice of hers—’ (Page 112)

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. (Page 180)

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (Page 180)

I hated the idea of ‘smashing up things and creatures’ and then retreating back into their money or their vast carelessness (Page 179)

You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together. (Page 162)

Can’t repeat the past? … Why of course you can! (Page 110)

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (Page 180)

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it. (Page 10)

It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it (Page 120)

The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun (Page 89)

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. (Page 41)

There I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute. (Page 73)

Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope (Page 5)

I like large parties. They’re so intimate. (Page 50)

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired. (Page 161)

I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. (Page 69)

They’re such beautiful shirts, it makes me sad because I’ve never seen such beautiful shirts. (Page 92)

He smiled understandingly – much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it. (Page 10)

He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room. (Page 98)

The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. (Page 98)

Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away. (Page 57)

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. (Page 11)

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. (Page 92)

A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling. (Page 12)

He was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night. (Page 23)

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. (Page 146)

There wasn’t a sound on the island but the scrape of the rake on the gravel and the whistle of clean wings. (Page 50)