He was terribly conscious that he only had one life and with seemed to sad to think that he had wasted it. He could never surmount his immeasurable regret. And that's why I tell you that Byring is right. Even though it only lasts five years, even though he ruins his career, even though this marriage ends in disaster, it will have been worth while. He will have been satisfied. He will have fulfilled himself. W. Somerset Maugham
About This Quote

Byring is a character in "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the novel, Byring is married to a woman named Sybil Rosen. Sybil is an ex-heiress, and her family's money is the biggest source of power in the novel.

In the words of Nick Carraway, "It was a horrible thing to have been spoiled by a great fortune - a great fortune that had been won by a man too weak to resist it." Byring, who is a copywriter at a magazine, is trying to make his way in the world. He has only one life, and he is determined to make it count. The novel ends with Nick going to Byring's house.

There, he sees Sybil lying on the sofa, drugged out of her mind by an overdose of morphine. Later, Nick learns that she shot herself after learning that Byring had given up his job at the magazine because his boss was pressuring him to work more hours than he wanted to. Byring finally feels like he has found something to live for, and he loves his wife deeply.

However, she can't love him back because of her drug addiction. When she hears that he has given up his job due to stress, she shoots herself. It's not clear whether or not she dies immediately or if she suffers for hours before she dies.

Regardless of how long it takes her to die, though, Byring lives with the guilt of knowing that he ruined their marriage because he was too weak to resist his former boss' pressure to work even more than his wife wanted him to work.

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  1. The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
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  3. As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.
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