So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

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More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of the past The past The human condition

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Great Gatsby

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Closing lines Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, ch. 9.

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A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald about effects of the past: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back…”
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A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald about effects of the past: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back…”
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A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald about effects of the past: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

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More information about this quote
Topic
New York City

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Source
The Great Gatsby
Medium
Novel
Language
English
Time
1925 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, ch. 4.

Another quote from the 1920s

The bonds between ourselves and another person exist only in our minds. Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

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More information about this quote
Topic
Existential solitude Connecting with others Isolation The human condition

Author

Marcel Proust
Source
The Fugitive In Search of Lost Time
Medium
Novel
Genre
Modernist literature
Language
French
Time
1922 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Albertine disparue [Albertine Gone]. Paris: Gallimard, 1927.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. The Fugitive, edited and translated by Peter Collier. Penguin Classics, 2021.

Another quote about The human condition

One can live for years sometimes, without living at all, and then all life comes crowding into a single hour.

Oscar Wilde

More information about this quote
Topic
Life The human condition
Speaker
Ivan the Czar

Author

Oscar Wilde
Source
Vera, or The Nihilists
Medium
Play
Genre
Tragic play
Language
English
Time
1880 1880s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. Vera; or, The Nihilists. London: Ranken & Co., 1880, act 4.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "Vera; or, The Nihilists." The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Vera; or The Nihilist and Lady Windermere's Fan, edited by Josephine M. Guy. Vol. 11, Oxford University Press, 2021, act 4.

Another quote of the following type Metaphor, analogy and simile

There is a strong shadow where there is much light.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

More information about this quote
Topic
Light and shadow Contrasts Yin and yang
Speaker
Gotz von Berlichingen

Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
German
Time
1773 1770s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Gotz von Berlichingen. 1773, act 1.