F. Scott Fitzgerald, in full Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American short-story writer and novelist. His most brilliant novel is The Great Gatsby. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and numerous short stories. His stories depicted the Jazz Age of the 1920s. He is considered one of the greatest writers in American history.
Fitzgerald was born into a middle-class family on September 24, 1896. He joined the United States Army during World War I where he met his future wife, Zelda Sayre. His first two novels, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned became a cultural sensation propelling him to immense fame. His third novel, The Great Gatsby, was a commercial failure at its time. Despite its poor debut, it eventually became one of America’s most celebrated novels. Fitzgeral struggles with alcoholism towards the later part of his life, eventually dying from a heart attack in 1940, at 44.
1 The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
It’s difficult for a person with mediocre intelligence to think about an idea from two contradictory positions. It takes a genius mind to look at things from different perspectives, to accept different ideas and still be able to function correctly.
2 Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. -F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sometimes, it’s not just about being able to persist but also about being able to start over. It takes more effort to ditch all that you’ve done so far and go back to starting over if the situation demands it.
3 Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
True genius is not in being to conjure up ideas and elaborate plans. Rather, it’s about being able to execute all that you’ve thought of effectively.
4 Action is character. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
A person’s true character is not shown through his words. Rather, it’s in their actions. One’s words and actions have to be in harmony.
5 No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
A conference of too many people rarely ever gives rise to good ideas. But you can be sure that at least, they’ll be able to discard the bad ones.
6 It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
When we’re young, we yearn for the company of our friends. But as we grow older, we realise that the only person who can save us from solitude and loneliness is ourselves.
7 When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
When people are forced into tough times, their real character surfaces. They reveal their true colours no matter how strong of a front they put up otherwise.
8 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. -F. Scott Fitzgerald
There come times in our lives when we have no control over where our life is going. We feel the loneliest when our entire life is falling apart and there’s nothing we can do about it.
9 That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The beauty of literature is in the fact that it gives us a world where we belong. Through literature we realise that we are not alone and there are others who long for the same things as us and who’ve been through the same things as us.
10 I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
After a certain age, we lose our innocence and break out of the naive shell that we’ve been in all our lives. There’s a certain pleasure in breaking that mould and exploring the world that lies beyond that.
11 And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, there is more privacy in large parties than anywhere else. People are self-indulgent and form their own intimate circles. You can be in a crowd and yet have the privacy you wouldn’t get in a gathering of a small group of people.
12 Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
People get more love and admiration when they’re in the grave than when they were alive. After all, we only realise the value of people when they’ve left us rather than when they’ve been with us because we take them for granted.
13 You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Literature, and in extension, art, shouldn’t be made just for the sake of it. You need to make a statement through your writings. If you have nothing to say through it, it just comes out as a hollow collection of words that wouldn’t resonate with anyone.
14 I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzegerald’s literature has some of the most beautiful romantic lines ever. There is a certain joy in the mere knowledge that the person you love is living under the same sky as you.
15 There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
No matter how many times you fall in love, you never get to experience the same kind of love again. Every experience of love you have is unique and comes with it’s own magic.
15 Best F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes, The Author of The Great Gatsby
1. The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. -F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. Action is character. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. 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. -F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
12. Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
14. I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice. – F. Scott Fitzgerald