Best F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes That Will Break Your Heart

Introduction

Quotes have the power to distill complex feelings into a single, unforgettable line. A few words from the right writer can cut through confusion, lift your resolve, and remind you what matters. Use these F. Scott Fitzgerald quotes when you need a sharp reminder of love, ambition, loss, or reinvention — on a difficult morning, before a big decision, as a caption, or simply to feel less alone.

Motivational quotes

• "There are no second acts in American lives."
• "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
• "Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind."
• "Action is character."
• "You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say."

Inspirational quotes

• "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
• "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."
• "The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want."
• "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."
• "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."

Life wisdom quotes

• "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."
• "Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope."
• "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."
• "There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice."
• "It takes two to make an accident."

Love & heartbreak quotes

• "I love her and that is the beginning and end of everything."
• "I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."
• "I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
• "No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."
• "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."

Success & ambition quotes

• "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired."
• "The first thing to be learned is that people will believe anything you tell them."
• "He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man."
• "Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy." (also a warning about how ambition is framed)
• "Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle, old age a regret."

Daily inspiration quotes

• "Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope." (a daily reminder to be patient)
• "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, and let other people clean up the mess