The Great Gatsby Quotes
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Source: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
"A sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth"
I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.
Context
Ah, the fundamental decencies of life.
Nick Carraway is reminding us—via his dad—that money isn't the only thing that people are born into. Some people are naturally just nicer and more honest: they have more "sense of the fundamental decencies."
In a novel that's all about the Benjamins, it's important for our narrator to help us look at other qualities in the characters.
Where you've heard it
Nowhere?
People don't talk like Nick Carraway, so it's unlikely that you've heard folks spouting off about the fundamental decencies of life. But Nick does bring up the question of nature vs. nurture—or, as Glinda would say, "Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?"
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.
Yeah, this one's a little condescending. Would you expect anything less from Nick?