It is youth’s felicity as well as its insufficiency that it can never live in the present, but must always be measuring up the day against its own radiantly imagined future
Interpretation
Youth is characterized by an inability to fully appreciate the present while constantly measuring it against a brighter future.
This quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald reflects on the nature of youth, suggesting that young people often find themselves caught between the joy of their current experiences and the aspirations they have for a better future. The phrase 'youth’s felicity and its insufficiency' captures the paradox of youth: while they are filled with hope and vibrant dreams, they struggle to find contentment in the here and now, often leading to a sense of dissatisfaction with the present.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about embracing the present moment during a graduation 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.
Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.
I think of bad news as a huge bird, with the wings of a crow and the face of my Grade Four school teacher, sparse bun, rancid teeth, wrinkly frown, pursed mouth and all, sailing around the world under cover of darkness pleased to be the bearer of ill tidings, carrying a basket of rotten eggs, and knowing- as the sun comes up- exactly where to drop them. On me, for one.
Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.
In the stormy current of life characters are weights or floats which at one time make us glide along the bottom, and at another maintain us on the surface.
If you truly want to grow as a person and learn, you should realize that the universe has enrolled you in the graduate program of life, called loss.
Make lots of noise _x000D_ Kiss lots of boys _x000D_ Or kiss lots of girls _x000D_ If that's something you're into _x000D_ When the straight and narrow _x000D_ Gets a little too straight _x000D_ Roll up a joint (or don't) _x000D_ Just follow your arrow _x000D_ Wherever it points.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.