The Great Gatsby Chapter 4 Quotes

"Once *I* wrote down on the empty spaces of a timetable the names of those who came to Gatsby's house that summer. But I can still read the gray names, and they will give you a better impression than my generalities of those who accepted Gatsby's hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him."

"*He* was never quite still; there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand."

"It's pretty, isn't it, old sport! Haven't you ever seen it before?" (referring to the car)

"I had talked to *him* perhaps six times in the past month and found, to my disappointment, that he had little to say. So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door."

"Look here, old sport, what's your opinion of me anyhow?"

"Well, I'm going to tell you something about my life. I don't want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear."

"He looked at me sideways--and *I* knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn't something sinister about him, after all."

"My family all died and I came into a good deal of money."

"After that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe--Paris, Venice, Rome--collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for myself, only, and trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago."

"With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter."

"Little Montenegro! *He* lifted up the words and nodded at them--with his smile."

"Then it was all true. *I* saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the Grand Canal; I saw him opening a chest of rubies to ease, with their crimson-lighted depths, the gnawings of his broken heart."

"No, this afternoon. I happened to find out that *you're* taking Miss Baker to tea."

"Do you mean *you're* in love with Miss Baker?"

"I hadn't the faintest idea what "this matter" was, but I was more annoyed than interested. I hadn't asked Jordan to tea in order to discuss Mr. Jay Gatsby."

"*I* was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card ever year."

"This is a nice restaurant here. But I like across the street better!"

"*I* beg your pardon. I had a wrong man."

"*His* eyes, meanwhile, roved very slowly all around the room--he completed the arc by turning to inspect the people directly behind. I think that, except for my presence, he would have taken one short glance between our own table."

"I'm afraid *I* made you a little angry this morning in the car."

"*I* don't like mysteries, and I don't understand why you won't come out frankly and tell me what you want. Why has it all got to come through Miss Baker?"

"He went to Oggsford College in England. You know Oggsford College?"

"Several years, *I* made the pleasure of his acquaintance just after the war. But I knew I had discovered a man of fine breeding after I talked with him an hour."

"I said to myself: 'There's the kind of *man* you'd like to take home and introduce to your mother and sister."

"Finest specimens of human molars."

"Yeah, Gatsby's very careful about women. He would never so much as look at a friend's wife."

"*He* becomes very sentimental sometimes. This is one of his sentimental days. He's quite a character around New York--a denizen of Broadway."

"*He's* the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919."

"Why isn't he in jail?"

"*I* insisted on paying the check. As the waiter brought my change I caught sight of Tom Buchanan across the crowded room."

"Come along with me for a minute. I've got to say hello to someone."

"Where you've been? Daisy's furious because you haven't called up."

"They shook hands briefly, and a strained, unfamiliar look of embarrassment came over ______'s face."

"*I* turned toward Mr. Gatsby, but he was no longer there."

"How've you been, anyhow? How'd you happen to come up this far to eat?"

"*She* was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville."

"Hello, Jordan, please come here."

"*I* was flattered that she wanted to speak to me, because of all the older girls I admired her most."

"His name was Jay Gatsby, and *I* didn't lay eyes on him again for over four years--even after I'd met him on Long Island I didn't realize it was the same man."

"'Gratulate me. Never had a drink before, but oh how I do enjoy it."

"Take 'em downstairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all ____'s change' her mine. Say: ____'s change' her mine!"

"*She* wouldn't let go of the letter. She took it into the tub with her and squeezed it up into a wet ball."

"The girl who was with *him* got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken--she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel."

"*She* used to sit on the sand with his head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight."

"Perhaps because *she* doesn't drink. It's a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and, moreover, you cant time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don't see or care."

"It was a strange coincidence."

"Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay."

"*He* wants to know, if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over."

"The modesty of the demand shook me."

"Did *I* have to know all this before he could ask such a little thing?"

"When I said *you* were a particular friend of Tom's, he started to abandon the whole idea. He doesn't know very much about Tom, though he says he's read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name."

"And Daisy ought to have something in her life."

"*She's* not to know about it. Gatsby doesn't want her to know. You're just supposed to invite her to tea."