"Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation– the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed … - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

One should . . . be able to see things as hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

But at three o'clock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesn't work — and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.

Once we were one person, and always it will be a little that way.

Compromising with events time moves along.