The cleverly expressed opposite of any generally accepted idea is worth a fortune to somebody.
Interpretation
Challenging widely accepted ideas can lead to valuable insights and opportunities.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote highlights the importance of questioning and opposing conventional wisdom. It suggests that the ability to articulate counterarguments or alternative perspectives can be extremely valuable, potentially yielding great rewards for those who can successfully navigate and challenge the status quo.
In practice
In a debate about climate change, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of alternative perspectives.
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.
How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.
Nothing will stifle your human evolution more than fame and fortune.
Nor deem the irrevocable Past _x000D_ As wholly wasted, wholly vain, _x000D_ If, rising on its wrecks, at last _x000D_ To something nobler we attain.
In the end I do respond to my own instincts. Sometimes they're successful, and obviously sometimes they're not. But you have to, I think, remain true to what you believe in.
True abundance has nothing to do with what I am having, but everything to do with what I am being.
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