Bitter Quotes - Page 39

• She knew that was not an honest prayer, and she did not linger over it. The right prayer would have been, Lord . . . I am miserable and bitter at heart, and old fears are rising up in me so that everything I do makes everything worse.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Fear, Prayer, Heart

  Marilynne Robinson (2008). “Home: A Novel”, p.69, Macmillan

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• I don't want tea," said Clary, with muffled force. "I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them." "Unfortunately," said Hodge, "we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.

  Cassandra Clare

  Mother, Revenge, Tea

  Cassandra Clare (2011). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (4 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

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• So, what do you do when you know you have two days to live? Eat an entire Bitter Chocolate Death cake all by myself. Reread my favorite novel. Buy eight dozen roses from the best florist in town--the super expensive ones, the ones that smell like roses rather than merely looking like them--and put them all over my apartment. Take a good long look at everyone I love.

  Robin McKinley

  Eight, Cake, Two

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• I could not become anything; neither good nor bad; neither a scoundrel nor an honest man; neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything, that only a fool can become something.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Hero, Intelligent, Men

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• I wondered why it had to be so poisonous. Oleanders could live through anything, they could stand heat, drought, neglect, and put out thousands of waxy blooms. So what did they need poison for? Couldn't they just be bitter? They weren't like rattlesnakes, they didn't even eat what they killed. The way she boiled it down, distilled it, like her hatred. Maybe it was a poison in the soil, something about L.A., the hatred, the callousness, something we didn't want to think about, that the plant concentrated in its tissues. Maybe it wasn't a source of poison, but just another victim.

  Janet Fitch

  Thinking, Hatred, Poison

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• Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God. To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, "God, you don't know what it's like! You don't understand! You have no idea what I'm going through. You don't have a clue how much this hurts." The cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. The cross is God taking on flesh and blood and saying, "Me too.

  Rob Bell

  Hurt, Blood, Sky

  Rob Bell (2010). “Sex God”, p.76, Harper Collins

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• Yesterday you asked me what the purpose of life is. I've thought about that ever since. I think it's to do good no matter what life throws at you, to not let the pain turn you bitter. It's something we have to learn, something we have to make ourselves become...Little kids don't have to learn it. They already know.

  Janette Rallison

  Pain, Kids, Thinking

  Janette Rallison (2009). “Just One Wish”, p.150, Penguin

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• unfortunately, we're all out of bitter evange at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing

  Cassandra Clare

  Tea, Moments, Fray

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• I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.

  Kathryn Stockett

  Dark, Insanity, Feelings

  Kathryn Stockett (2009). “The Help”, p.363, Penguin

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• Let the tears which fell, and the broken words which were exchanged in the long close embrace between the orphans, be sacred. A father, sister, and mother, were gained, and lost, in that one moment. Joy and grief were mingled in the cup; but there were no bitter tears: for even grief arose so softened, and clothed in such sweet and tender recollections, that it became a solemn pleasure, and lost all character of pain.

  Charles Dickens

  Mother, Sweet, Pain

  Charles Dickens (1839). “Oliver Twist”, p.205

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• In fact her maturity and blood kinship converted her passion to fever, so it was more affliction than affection. It literally knocked her down at night, and raised her up in the morning, for when she dragged herself off to bed, having spent another day without his presence, her heart beat like a gloved fist against her ribs. And in the morning, long before she was fully awake, she felt a longing so bitter and tight it yanked her out of a sleep swept clean of dreams.

  Toni Morrison

  Dream, Morning, Sleep

  Toni Morrison (1987). “Sula”

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• Not all poisonous juices are burning or bitter nor is everything which is burning and bitter poisonous.

  Claude Levi-Strauss

  Juice, Burning, Poisonous

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• Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword! Some kill their love when they are young, And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold. Some love too little, some too long, Some sell, and others buy; Some do the deed with many tears, And some without a sigh: For each man kills the thing he loves, Yet each man does not die.

  Oscar Wilde

  Kissing, Men, Hands

  The Ballad of Reading Gaol pt. 1, st. 7 (1898) See Roberts 1

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• Was love then like a bag of assorted sweets passed around from which one might choose more than once? Some might sting the tongue, some invoke night perfume. Some had centers as bitter as gall, some blended honey and poison, some were quickly swallowed. And among the common bull's-eyes and peppermints a few rare ones; one or two with deadly needles at the heart, another that brought clam and gentle pleasure. Were his fingers closing on that one?

  Annie Proulx

  Sweet, Heart, Eye

  Annie Proulx (1994). “The Shipping News”, p.315, Simon and Schuster

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• But do you remember Gandalf’s words: Even Gollum may have something yet to do? But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him! For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Forgiving, Quests, May

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings”, p.926, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• How sad it was, Carmen thought, that you acted awful when you were desperately sad and hurt and wanted to be loved. How tragic then, the way everyone avoided you and tiptoed around you when you really needed them. Carmen knew this vicious predicament as well as anyone in the world. How bitter it felt when you acted badly to everyone and ended up hating yourself the most.

  Ann Brashares

  Hurt, Hate, World

  Ann Brashares (2012). “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Complete Collection”, p.640, Delacorte Press

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• The world is wider in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain and Lazarus.

  Annie Dillard

  Hay, Tomatoes, Cain

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• But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,' said Frodo. Sam looked at him unhappily. 'It all depends on what you want,' put in Merry. 'You can trust us to stick with you through thick and thin--to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours--closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Secret, Doe, Want

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• War happens to people, one by one. That is really all I have to say and it seems to me I have been saying it forever. Unless they are immediate victims, the majority of mankind behaves as if war was an act of God which could not be prevented; or they behave as if war elsewhere was none of their business. It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.

  Martha Gellhorn

  War, Imagination, People

  "Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life". Book by Caroline Moorehead, 2003.

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• You, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earth by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow; and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming converted!

  Thomas Hardy

  Thinking, Heaven, Black

  Thomas Hardy (2016). “Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman”, p.374, Thomas Hardy

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• I suppose most people would think that it was wonderful, that the world is so varied, that there is something for everyone, and I don't know why I felt so closed and bitter and threatened by things I did not like.

  Peter Cameron

  Threatened, Knows, Felt

  "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You: A Novel".

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• When I was at school my jography told me th' earth was shaped like a orange an' I found out before I was ten that th' whole orange doesn't belong to nobody. No one owns more than his bit of a quarter an' there's times it seems there's not enow quarters to go around. But don't you-none o' you- think as you own th' whole orange or you'll find out you're mistaken, an' you won't find it without hard knocks. What children learns from children, is that there's no sense grabbin' at th' whole orange-peel an' all. If you do you'll likely not get even th' pips, an' them's too bitter to eat.

  Frances Hodgson Burnett

  Children, School, Thinking

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• There is very little real liberty in the world; even those who seem freest are often the most tightly bound. Law, custom, public opinion, fear or shame make slaves of us all, as you will find when you try your experiment.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Real, Law, Trying

  "A Long Fatal Love Chase".

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• Tea should be as bitter as wormwod and as sharp as a two eged sword Kit Snicket (a series of unfortunate events)

  Daniel Handler

  Two, Tea, Events

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• The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.

  Abraham Verghese

  Motivational, Destiny, Keys

  "Cutting for Stone". Book by Abraham Verghese, www.sfgate.com. 2009.

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