These lights, this brightness, these clusters of human hope, of wild desire—I shall take these lights in my fingers. I shall make them bright, and whether they shine or not, it is in these fingers that they shall succeed or fail.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the individual's power to impact hope and desire regardless of external circumstances.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote reflects on the importance of personal agency in the pursuit of dreams and aspirations. It suggests that, although the outcome of hopes and desires may be uncertain, it is ultimately the individual's effort and determination that drive success or failure. This highlights a profound belief in self-empowerment and the responsibility one holds to shape their own destiny through action and commitment.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing dreams, one might use this quote to inspire the audience.
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 knew a lot of people who were beaten by the Depression, but there was still a feeling of positiveness among people: everyone thought it's got to get better. We were all trying to get the country back on its feet. There was a feeling that you could do anything, and this was certainly very true in the theater.
You must climb above yourself-up and beyond, until you have even your stars under you.
Everything starts with one person... I don't care if you're 5 or 105, God from all eternity chose you to be where you are, at this time in history, to change the world.
Hold on to your dreams for they are, in a sense, the stuff of which reality is made. It is through our dreams that we maintain the possibility of a better, more meaningful life.
Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution - they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.
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