The Great Gatsby Quotes
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Source: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
"It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well."
I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before—and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.
Context
This here's a metaphor, people.
Nick knows that Tom and George have both just found out that their wives are cheating on them, and he compares it to discovering that they have some sort of disease. Maybe because some cherished idea is dying?
P.S. Yeah, Tom was cheating, too (with George's wife), but apparently that wasn't as big of a deal then. Thanks, 1920s.
Where you've heard it
Unless you hang out with a bunch of cheaters and think about them in weird metaphorical terms, you probably haven't heard this one outside of The Great Gatsby.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Stop speaking in metaphors.