“There was no time for bitterness now: eat bitterness, and bitterness eats you.”

“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”

“Lift your flowers
on bitter stems
chickory!
Lift them up
out of the scorched ground!
Bear no foliage
but give yourself
wholly to that!
Strain under them
you bitter stems
that no beast eats —
and scorn greyness!”

“The food that memory gives to eat is bitter to the taste, and it is only with the teeth of hope that we can bear to bite it.”

“Bitter, being first to tell you bitter news.”

“Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”

“Life's too short to be bitter, I'm too short to be bitter.”

“For to love, loveless, is a bitter pill:
But to be loved, unloving, bitterer still.”

“Everyone is a little bitter. We're born bitter. The personality itself is really just a very complex defense mechanism. A reaction to the first time someone said, "No you can't.”

“Oh why rebuke you him that loves you so? / Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.”