“In my younger and more vulnerable years my parents gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all people in this world have not had all the advantages that you have had.”
Permalink: F. Scott Fitzgerald
About this quote
Gatsby recalls the advice and never mentions that he has spent the whole book failing to follow it. The irony is structural rather than comic, because the man who is judged by the proverb is the one who needed it most, and Fitzgerald tells it in the same polished voice as the rest of the narration.
Source: The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8