The Great Gatsby Quotes

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Source: The Great Gatsby

Speaker: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I did love him once—but I loved you too."

"Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once – but I loved you too."

Context


Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby is a rough one. Here, Daisy has just about had it with Gatsby making her feel bad. She's trying to tell him that she can't change the past (when she married Tom instead of him), but Gatsby can't quite get that through his head. He's stuck in the past and it doesn't look like he has a way out.

Where you've heard it

From all of your exes.

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.

While we don't condone loving two people at once (sorry, The Bachelor), we think Daisy's got good intentions here. Hopefully you'll never have to say this to someone, but if you do, it at least won't be pretentious.