This Side of Paradise

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

As he put in his studs he realized that he was enjoying life as he would probably never enjoy it again. Everything was hallowed by the haze of his own youth.

I’m restless as the devil and have a horror of getting fat or falling in love and growing domestic.

the sentimental person thinks things will last—the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won’t.”

I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.

Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.…

He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky. “I know myself,” he cried, “but that is all.”