40+ Tom Buchanan Quotes From The Great Gatsby That Are Rich With Meaning
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Tom Buchanan from 'The Great Gatsby' has a wealthy lifestyle that symbolizes the American dream of living in mansions, driving expensive cars, and marrying a beautiful wife.
If you are looking for a Tom Buchanan description, he is a tall, masculine man, who possesses immense physical strength and arrogance. One of the best known Tom Buchanan character traits is his stubbornness, the character also has a narrow prospect of the world and people around him.
These Tom Buchanan characteristics could be attributed to the fact that Tom doesn't need to earn a single penny for himself in life, thanks to his great inheritance. Therefore, he spends most of his time traveling with his wife Daisy to amazing locations, playing polo, and socializing with his rich peers.
Tom Buchanan is the antagonist of the story, as his wife Daisy is in love with Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire who is known to throw extravagant parties for his guests at his grand and lavish mansion.
Tom Buchanan and Daisy are quite the couple and Tom arrogantly believes that his wife will never leave him for Jay as he is from a poor family.
Referring to Jay, Tom says that Daisy wouldn’t leave him for "a common swindler, a bootlegger who’d have to steal the ring he put on her finger".
Let's dive into their world with these insightful 'Great Gatsby' quotes, and you can also take a look at these [Jay Gatsby quotes] and Nick Carraway quotes too.
Quotes About Tom Buchanan From 'The Great Gatsby'
These 'Great Gatsby' quotes about Tom describe Tom Buchanan and his way of life.
1. "Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
2. "It was a body capable of enormous leverage - a cruel body."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
3. "A national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
Quotes About Wealth In 'The Great Gatsby'
In 'The Great Gatsby', money is representative of the value of a person in society's eyes, which is evident from these 'Great Gatsby' wealth quotes about money, as well as the 'Great Gatsby' carelessness quotes. These quotes about money in 'The Great Gatsby' represent Tom Buchanan's wealth as well as that of those he socialises with.
4. "Why they came East I don't know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
5. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
6. "They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness... and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
'The Great Gatsby' Character Quotes
Enjoy these Tom and Myrtle quotes, with some Jay Gatsby and Tom quotes and a few 'Great Gatsby' greed quotes.
7. "She is not leaving me, certainly not for a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on her finger."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
8. "We’re different. I am. They are. She is. We’re all different from you. You see, we were born different.."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
9. "The only crazy I was was when I married him."
-Myrtle Wilson, 'The Great Gatsby'.
10. " You think I’m pretty dumb, don’t you?"
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
11. "I told that boy about the ice. These people! You have to keep after them all the time."
-Myrtle Wilson, 'The Great Gatsby'.
12. "Well, it's a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don't look out, the white race will be — will be utterly submerged."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
13. "I wouldn't ask too much of her, I ventured. You can't repeat the past."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
14. "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman."
-Myrtle Wilson, 'The Great Gatsby'.
15. "Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it!"
-Jay Gatsby, 'The Great Gatsby'.
16. "You see, we were born different. It's in our blood. And nothing that you do or say or steal… or dream up can ever change that."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
17. "He wasn't fit to lick my shoe."
-Myrtle Wilson, 'The Great Gatsby'.
18. "I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
19. "It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me."
-Jay Gatsby, 'The Great Gatsby'.
20. "I'll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
Quotes From 'The Great Gatsby' About Gatsby
These quotes about Jay Gatsby, are quotes describing Gatsby that show his humble and loving nature, in contrast to Tom Buchanan.
21. "He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
22. "If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
23. "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams - not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
24. "It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
25. "In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
'The Great Gatsby' Setting Quotes
These quotes describe the setting of 'The Great Gatsby', including some 'The Great Gatsby' social class quotes.
26. "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
27. "Eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
28. "About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
29. "Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
30. "This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat... where ashes take the forms of houses..."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
Famous Quotes From 'The Great Gatsby'
'The Great Gatsby' is filled with quotes that deserve a spot in your mind.
31. "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
32. "No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."
-Nick Carraway, 'The Great Gatsby'.
33. "The police arrived just as he was leaving the scene of the crime. He tried to escape but wound up getting lead poisoning for his troubles. "
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
34. "I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
-Daisy, 'The Great Gatsby'.
35. "I love you now - isn't that enough? I can't help what's past."
-Daisy, 'The Great Gatsby'.
36. "Did you give Nick a little heart to heart talk on the veranda?"
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
37. "He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
38. "Daisy, can't you see who this guy is, with his house and his parties and his fancy clothes?"
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
39. " He is just a front for Wolfsheim, a gangster, to get his claws into respectable folk like Walter Chase."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
40. " Life is something you dominate, Nick! If you're any good."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
41. "It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved."
-Tom Buchanan, 'The Great Gatsby'.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Tom Buchanan quotes, then why not take a look at these Zelda Fitzgerald quotes, or [Jazz quotes] too?
Main Image Editorial credit: Iv-olga / Shutterstock.com
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A professional content writer hailing from Kolkata, India, with extensive experience in the corporate sector, Writvik Gupta has worked with several reputed companies, including ITC WelcomHotel Jodhpur, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Aryan Imaging, and Eduquity. He also serves as a consultant for a startup based in Bangalore. With a passion for the outdoors, Writvik enjoys trekking and traveling to remote destinations. He also has a keen interest in exploring various cuisines and regularly volunteers for social causes.
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