The Great Gatsby Quotes

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Source: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

"It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about—things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.'"

Context

The Great Gatsby is definitely a man's world. (Welcome to the 1920s.)

We're just in the first chapter of the book, and we can already tell that life ain't kind to the ladies. This quote will give any modern guy or gal the eebie jeebies, but girls were the "losers" in the world of this novel. No matter how much money Daisy has, she'll never be top dog. And so, she pretends she's happy to have a girl, but she's definitely not.

Where you've heard it

Hopefully you haven't.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

If you said this not in reference to the book, you'd be off the charts.