The Great Gatsby Quotes

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Source: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their irises are one yard high"

But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic – their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.

Context


For all the details on Dr. T.J. and his creepy billboard eyes, take a look at our analysis of the symbol.

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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.

Writing these words to wax poetic is one thing. Saying them at a dinner party? Totally different.