I can’t tell you just how wonderful she is. I don’t want you to know. I don’t want any one to know.
Interpretation
The speaker expresses a deep, intimate admiration for a person, preferring to keep that sentiment private.
This quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the profound admiration and affection one can have for another person. The speaker's desire to keep this admiration hidden suggests that the beauty and wonder of the person they admire are too special to be shared with the world. It reflects a sense of protection over one's feelings and the unique bond that exists between them and the admired individual.
In practice
During a heartfelt toast at a wedding, one might quote this to convey deep affection for the spouse.
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.
I tried to keep myself away from him by using con words like "fidelity" and "adultery", by telling myself that he would interfere with my work, that I had him I'd be too happy to write. I tried to tell myself I was hurting Bennett, hurting myself, making a spectacle of myself. I was. But nothing helped. I was possessed. The minute he walked into a room and smiled at me, I was a goner.
We lay on the ground and kissed. Perhaps you smile. That we only lay on the ground and kissed. You young people can lend your bodies now, play with them, give them as we could not. But remember that you have paid a price: that of a world rich in mystery and delicate emotion. It is not only species of animal that die out. But whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know. But pity yourself for what it did.
Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.
God's love is an exercise of his goodness toward sinners who merit only condemnation.
And one by one the nights between our separated cities are joined to the night that unites us.
God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.
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