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