Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
Interpretation
True vitality lies in the ability to both keep going and to begin anew when necessary.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote emphasizes that genuine vitality is not merely about resilience or the capacity to endure challenges; it also encompasses the courage and strength needed to restart and embrace new beginnings. This perspective highlights the importance of adaptability and continuous growth in the journey of life, suggesting that successful individuals recognize the power of renewal as much as they recognize the value of perseverance.
In practice
Using this quote during a motivational speech to encourage people facing setbacks.
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.
Half of today is better than all of tomorrow.
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Imagining may be the first step in making it happen, but it takes the real time and real efforts of real people to learn things, make things, turn thoughts into deeds or visions into inventions.
Every time you take a step, even when you don't want to. . . . When it hurts, when it means you rub chins with death, or even if it means dying, that's good. Anything that moves ahead, wins. No chess game was ever won by the player who sat for a lifetime thinking over his next move.
I learned to run backwards from Muhammad Ali. He told me about running backwards because you try to imitate everything you do in the ring, so sometimes you back up. So you have to train your legs to go backwards.
The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after you fall.
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