They're a rotten crowd', I shouted across the lawn. 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.
Interpretation
The speaker values one individual far above a group that he considers morally inferior.
In this quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald, the speaker is expressing his disdain for a group of people whom he believes to be corrupt or lacking in integrity. By declaring that the individual he addresses is 'worth the whole damn bunch put together,' he highlights the importance of true character and personal worth, implying that the value of one good person outweighs a crowd of lesser individuals.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of true friendship over popularity.
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.
A friend is one with whom you are comfortable, to whom you are loyal, through whom you are blessed, and for whom you are grateful.
Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith.
No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.
Be sure to put the knocker fairly low on your door in case a very small friend drops by.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
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