F. Scott Fitzgerald's best quotes (with their source)
The top 3 according to 293 votes from people: 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. · The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. · Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.. (Updated Jan 12, 2021.)
"So we beat on, boats against the current", the very rich who "are different from you and me" and the first-rate intelligence that holds two opposed ideas at once: F. Scott Fitzgerald's most quoted lines, from The Great Gatsby and The Crack-Up to his stories and letters, each with its source.
Top 14
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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.
The Great Gatsby (1925).
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2
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
The Crack-Up (1936).
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3
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.
"The Rich Boy" (1926).
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4
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
The Great Gatsby (1925), closing lines.
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5
Either you think — or else others have to think for you and take power from you.
Tender Is the Night (1934).
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6
There are no second acts in American lives.
The Last Tycoon, notes (1941).
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7
All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.
Letter to his daughter Scottie (undated).
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8
One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual.
Tender Is the Night (1934), bk. 2, ch. 11.
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9
In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.
The Crack-Up (1936).
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10
The victor belongs to the spoils.
The Beautiful and Damned (1922).
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11
I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works.
Letter to Harold Ober (4 March 1938).
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12
Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules.
"Babylon Revisited" (1931).
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13
My father has a diamond bigger than the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
"The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" (1922).
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14
It takes a genius to whine appealingly.
Letter to Maxwell Perkins (October 1924).
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (2)
The Crack-Up line about holding two opposed ideas gets quoted in every management book now, which I think Fitzgerald would find hilarious.
"The victor belongs to the spoils" is such a perfect Fitzgerald inversion. Nobody did it better.