“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.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald IntelligenceOldTime
“Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald ActionDefeatLifeStruggle
“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald DrinkingWittyDrinkTakeTaking
“Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald Laugh
“Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald Power
“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald Past
“Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds, they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald DefeatInspirationalKnowledgeMotivationalWin
“At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald CarePlay
“Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald GeniusInspirationalMotivationalIdeaMindAbilityEffect
“I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald Time
“In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“It's not a slam at you when people are rude, it's a slam at the people they've met before.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won't save us any more than love did.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald FriendsLove
“The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald DoneOldWork
“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it, on the inside.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald God
“Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk, rather like the respect of simple races for the insane... There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald InsaneLostPlayRespect
