The Great Gatsby

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that Ive been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone he told me. just remember that all the people in this world havent had the advantages that youve had. He didnt say any more but weve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence Im inclined to reserve all judgements a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of beinga politician because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought-frequently I have feigned sleep preoccupation or a hostile levity when I realized some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.