This Side of Paradise quotes

He wanted to kiss her, kiss her a lot, because then he knew he could leave in the morning and not care.

Don’t let yourself feel worthless; often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think best of yourself

There used to be two kinds of kisses: First when girls were kissed and deserted; second, when they were engaged. Now there’s a third kind, where the man is kissed and deserted.

She won’t marry him, but a girl doesn’t have to marry a man to break his heart.

I’m so happy that I’m frightened. Wouldn’t it be awful if this was—was the high point?...

Marrying you would be a failure and I never fail

Beware of losing yourself in the personality of another being, man or woman.

I’m one of those people who go through the world giving other people thrills, but getting few myself except those I read into men on such nights as these. I have the social courage to go on the stage, but not the energy; I haven’t the patience to write books; and I never met a man I’d marry. However, I’m only eighteen.

To-morrow I’m going to leave New York for good. It’s a bad town unless you’re on top of it.

I’m restless. My whole generation is restless. I’m sick of a system where the richest man gets the most beautiful girl if he wants her, where the artist without an income has to sell his talents to a button manufacturer.

It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.

I suppose all great happiness is a little sad. Beauty means the scent of roses and then the death of roses—

Princeton drew him most, with its atmosphere of bright colors and its alluring reputation as the pleasantest country club in America.