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.
Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.
You've got as many lives as you like, and more, even ones you don't want.
I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers. May God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable.
Where I grew up - I grew up on the north side of Akron, lived in the projects. So those scared and lonely nights - that's every night. You hear a lot of police sirens, you hear a lot of gunfire. Things that you don't want your kids to hear growing up.
Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.
Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives.
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