Beauty and love pass, I know... Oh, there's sadness, too. I suppose all great happiness is a little sad. Beauty means the scent of roses and then the death of roses-
Interpretation
True happiness is intertwined with sadness as beauty and love are transient.
F. Scott Fitzgerald reflects on the fleeting nature of beauty and love, suggesting that they contain an inherent sadness. This duality illustrates that with the joy of experiencing beauty or love comes the understanding that these moments are temporary, thus evoking an awareness of loss that accompanies true happiness.
In practice
This quote resonates in a speech about the complexities of love during a wedding ceremony.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
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.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
I think everyone should go to bed like they have a date at the door.
The happiness of life consists, like the day, not in single flashes (of light), but in one continuous mild serenity. The most beautiful period of the heart's existence is in this calm equable light, even although it be only moonshine or twilight. Now the mind alone can obtain for us this heavenly cheerfulness and peace.
Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter.
Beauty comes in many forms-and there is no form more beautiful than you. Just exactly as you are, this minute, right now, without changing a thing...you are beautiful. Beautiful enough to take God's breath away. You do believe this, don't you? Oh, you must. You must. How can I believe in my beauty if you don't believe in yours?
Be easy on yourself. Have fun. Only hang around people that are positive and make you feel good. Anybody who doesn't make you feel good, kick them to the curb. And the earlier you start in your life the better. The minute anybody makes you feel weird and non-included or not supported, you know, either beat it or tell them to beat it.
It's what's in *yourself* that makes you happy or unhappy.
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