Bittersweet Quotes

1. "When I die,' I said to my friend, 'I'm not going to be embalmed. I'm going to be dipped.' Milk chocolate or bittersweet was the immediate concern."
Author: Adrianne Marcus

2. "There was more, he was sure. He could feel it. Something deeper. More profound. More worthy. More likeable. It was like a bittersweet yearning for something that was so familiar it hurt. Something he'd lost without even knowing he'd lost it. Something elusive that floated just beyond his grasp."
Author: Alan McCluskey

3. "Come with me outside," he says, and I feel his hand on mine. "We won't go far." I can't see him; but I hear a complicated mix of emotion in his voice and feel it in the way he touches me. Love, concern, and something unusual, something bittersweet."
Author: Ally Condie

4. "MeridianFirst daylight on the bittersweet-hungsleeping porch at high summer; dewall over the lawn, sowing diamond-point-highlighted shadows;the hired man's shadow revolvingalong the walk, a flash of milkpailspassing; no threat in sight, no hintanywhere in the universe, of thatapathy at the meridian, the noonof absolute boredom; fliescrooning black lullabies in the kitchen,milk-soured crocks, cream separatorstill unwashed; what is there to lifebut chores and more chores, dishwater,fatigue, unwanted children; nothingto stir the longueur of afternoonexcept possibly thunderheads;climbing, livid, turreted alabasterlit up from within by splendor and terror-- forded lightening'ssplit-second disaster."
Author: Amy Clampitt

5. "He had no illusion that this was bittersweet or somehow necessary to make art. It just burned. Anyone who felt this would take their hand off the stove at once, but he was locked in position, inches from the source of his pain, for as far into the future as he could see, because if he was going to be a musician, if he was going to protect the one profound and real thing about himself, the one thing he loved besides her (but which only she made appear at its strongest), then he would be a fool to leave a singer who so obviously was going to go all the way."
Author: Arthur Phillips

6. "It seemed to Don Jaime that you could find in the memory of every man the bittersweet shadow of a woman."
Author: Arturo Pérez Reverte

7. "The...act of surrender—or devotion, as the case may be—was, to him, a kind of lifeline for those who sought a quick answer and didn't want to stick around long enough to see their doubt through to its ultimate conclusion. A conclusion, which, of itself, was a bittersweet paradox—for how could doubt simply cease to exist by any stretch of the imagination? Doubt was, nonetheless—from his own perspective—the only inclusive insight into the nature of a Truth exclusive of conditions."
Author: Ashim Shanker

8. "...he wonders by what process virtually any discussion about the war seems to profane these ultimate matters of life and death. As if to talk of such things properly we need a mode of speech near the equal of prayer, otherwise just shut, shut your yap and sit on it, silence being truer to the experience than the star-spangled spasm, the bittersweet sob, the redeeming hug, or whatever this fucking closure is that everybody's always talking about. They want it to be easy and it's just not going to be."
Author: Ben Fountain

9. "A part of my appreciation for the good which moments bring has come from awareness and recognition. But it has also come from a correspnding sadness which arises from their passing. When something that can never quite be reenacted comes to an end (and all moments are that way), I feel a pensiveness within. This pensiveness gives my life a quality that might be best described as bittersweet. And those moments take on double meaning and richness - because they are here now - and because they will not always be."
Author: Bob Benson

10. "There's always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened."
Author: Bruno Mars

11. "And it means snapshots, because that's what all stories I write come down to; each is a snapshot of who I was during however many days and weeks it was written. A fictional reflection of my mind fossilized, set in paper and ink, instead of stone. Memorialized, for better or worse. This is who I was, and this, and this, and this, and that, and most times I look back and wince. I'm rarely kind to who I was. But other times, looking back is bittersweet. Sometimes, I'm even grateful to the me of then who left a snapshot for the me of now. Maybe I should let go and join those who pretend the past is past, but it's a falsehood I've never learned to spin."
Author: Caitlín R. Kiernan

12. "As time passes, the day will come when everything will fade to memories. But those miraculous days, when you and I, along with everyone else, searched together for just that one thing, will continue revolving forever somewhere deep in my heart, as my bittersweet memory."
Author: Chica Umino

13. "Bittersweet? No, just bitter, the taste of your tongue.Words you can't have back, so they linger."
Author: Coco J. Ginger

14. "We are meant to love. We are meant to lose. Love is our promise of a bittersweet end, and our desperate, hopeless struggle not to hurt anyone along the way."
Author: Courtney M. Privett

15. "Emma's mid-twenties had brought a second adolescence even more self-absorbed and doom-laden than the first one. 'Why don't you just come home, sweetheart?' her mum had said on the phone last night, using her quavering, concerned voice, as if her daughter had been abducted. 'Your room's still here. There's jobs at Debenhams' - and for the first time she had been tempted.Once, she thought she could conquer London. She had imagined a whirl of literary salons, political engagement, larky parties, bittersweet romances conducted on Thames embankments. She had intended to form a band, make short films, write novels, but two years on slim volume of verse was no fatter, and nothing really good had happened to her since she'd been baton-charged at Poll Tax Riots."
Author: David Nicholls

16. "Darling, you know what they say. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince." I give her a lopsided, bittersweet smile. "I think I've kissed a prince, Mom. I hope he doesn't turn into a frog."
Author: E.L. James

17. "Why me?""Because you draw me. Because you are kind but not soft. Because when you touch me, the pain is bittersweet. Because you cradle a desperate secret to your bosom, like a viper in your arms, and don't let go of it even as it gnaws upon your very flesh. I want to pry that viper from your arms. To suckle upon your torn and bloody flesh. To take your pain within myself and make it mine."
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

18. "I am forever grateful for not knowing—What would have been. WHAT WILL BE holds none of those bittersweet pangs and it is lit w joy."
Author: Erica Goros

19. "More important for Chime were the ballads that my father sang me. I think that all of those ballads, the structure of them, the bittersweet nature of them, has gone right into my books. I can't thank my father enough; he sang me two songs every night and sometimes they'd be these long ballads with 32 verses. I grew up knowing an amazing number of stories, accompanied by these gorgeous and haunting tunes that aren't part of our modern culture. They're very Gaelic. I think that was really important to me; I would not be the writer I am if he had not sung me all those songs. So, thanks Dad"
Author: Franny Billingsley

20. "Currently she was midway through a bittersweet David Nicholls novel that any other time might well have made her self-indulgently reflective."
Author: Freya North

21. "That she was irreplaceable became a bittersweet loyalty: Her death was what I had now instead of her."
Author: Gail Caldwell

22. "I love that, even after jumping through hoops forever, I can still get that buzz, that hook. That's very healthy, but it's bittersweet, too, because if you don't get the part, you have to deal with the disappointment. I don't think I'll ever negotiate those peaks and troughs wholly healthily."
Author: Gina McKee

23. "And the pomegranates,/like memories, are bittersweet/as we huddle together,/remembering just how good/life used to be"
Author: Guadalupe Garcia McCall

24. "Here and there one sees the blush of wild rose haws or the warmth of orange fruit on the bittersweet, and back in the woods is the occasional twinkle of partridgeberries. But they are the gem stones, the rare decorations which make the grays, the browns and the greens seem even more quiet, more completely at rest."
Author: Hal Borland

25. "The warm bittersweet smell of clean Negro welcomed us as we entered the churchyard-Hearts of Love hairdressing mingled with asafoetida, snuff, Hoyt's Cologne, Brown's Mule, peppermint, and lilac talcum."
Author: Harper Lee

26. "It was as if all of the happiness, all of the magic of this blissful hour had flowed together into these stirring, bittersweet tones and flowed away, becoming temporal and transitory once more."
Author: Herman Hesse

27. "Life at best is bittersweet."
Author: Jack Kirby

28. "Live a life abundant in love and rich in spirit, these are the seeds of a fulfilling existence. Be the safe harbor you seek in the world. Follow your dreams, not your fear. Go into the New Year with an open mind and hopeful heart. Don't let the chains of unforgiveness weigh you down. Life is too short to live in a prison of past hurts. The futures is yours for the taking and creating. Life is bittersweet, when we can let darkness and light co-exist as illumination, we can live in true happiness. When we live life at its best, it is a symphony of feelings, of high and low notes, of tragedy and comedy, love and loss, magic and the sublime. It can be quite a spectacular journey when we fully embrace and accept it."
Author: Jaeda DeWalt

29. "Pain is a predator when we run from it, it will inevitably chase us down and catch us in its clutches. The goal isn't to wallow in the pain or to avoid it, but rather, to move through it. Pain only holds us hostage when we get stuck in it or try to repress it. Pain is a part of the human experience. Life is a bittersweet journey. Developing the ability to learn from our pain and to cope with it, effectively, is one of the most empowering gifts we can give ourselves."
Author: Jaeda DeWalt

30. "...I live with regrets - the bittersweet loss of innocence - the red track of the moon upon the lake - the inability to return and do it again..."
Author: John Geddes

31. "Tell me the best part of all your lives."She wanted to say When I found you, every time. But it wasn't as simple as that. It was hard even to think of them discretely. Her past lives began to swirl together and hiccup like the panels of a kaleidoscope. There was that beautiful moment in Tahiti when Lulu had tattooed Daniel's chest. And the way they'd abandoned a battle in ancient China because their love was more important than fighting any war. She could have listed a dozen sexy stolen moments, a dozen gorgeous, bittersweet kisses. Luce knew those weren't the best parts.The best part was now. That was what she would take with her from her journeys through the ages: He was worth everything to her and she was worth everything to him. The only way to experience that deep level of their love was to enter each new moment together, as if time were made of clouds. And if it came down to it during these next nine days, Luce knew that she and Daniel would risk everything for their love."
Author: Lauren Kate

32. "It tore my heart out, because I heard his voice. The wolves sang slowly behind him, bittersweet harmony, but all I heard was Sam. His howl trembled, rose, fell in anguish.I listened for a long time. I prayed for them to stop, to leave me alone, but at the same time I was desperately afraid they would. Long after the other voices had dropped away, Sam kept howling, very soft and slow.When he finally fell silent, the night felt dead."
Author: Maggie Stiefvater

33. "The flesh was weak, but it was not dumb. It had its own animal intelligence. In her husband's bed her body had felt like dead clay, but it had come back to life this morning in the apple grove.How had she forgotten such pleasure? It invigorated the senses and enlarged the lungs. Riding through the meadow, the air had tasted richer and the brush of his worsted jacket against her bare wrist had riveted her whole awareness. Even her silent, inward turmoil had felt bittersweet to her."
Author: Meredith Duran

34. "Revenge is a bittersweet fruit that leaves the foul aftertaste of regret."
Author: Michael J. Sullivan

35. "We have travelled this world to a bittersweet love song:Take my hand and lets carry on....Do my eyes deceive me or do you grow more wonderful each day?After all these years of love you're more fantastic today than the day we met.And...you were quite fantastic then....I Love you still"
Author: Michelle Geaney

36. "Victory is always bittersweet."
Author: Nadia Scrieva

37. "Love is just as much suffering as it is sweetness. If it was perfect, that's what they'd all it. They wouldn't call it bittersweet."
Author: Nicole Williams

38. "My style of comedy is very real and bittersweet, and sort of always on the verge of kind of being tragic."
Author: Paul Feig

39. "It was like dawn, and then dusk cascading over the Himalayas. First, the gradual brightening over snow and contour, then the shining, sparkling sun mirrored; and then as the moment of joy passed – the lingering colour-changing light; reluctant to leave. That faint, bittersweet almost-light, and then indigo outlines and inky black."
Author: Radhika Mukherjee

40. "Nostalgia is, by its very nature, bittersweet, the happiest memories laced with melancholy. It's that combination, that opposition of forces, that makes it so compelling. People, places, events, times: we miss them, and there's a pleasure in the missing and a sadness in the love.The feeling is most acute, sometimes cripplingly so, when we find ourselves longing for the moment we're in, the people we're actually with.That nameless feeling, that sense of excruciating beauty, of pained happiness, is at the core of "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."
Author: Robert J. Wiersema

41. "Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me,Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable creature…."
Author: Sappho

42. "The night he and Julia had was amazing, and something he'd dreamed about for you years. Up until that night, she'd only been a fantasy... He'd never thought he'd have a chance with her, so he'd kept his distance and watched from afar. That night was everything he'd dreamed it would be, although a little bittersweet."
Author: Sarah Addison Allen

43. "The modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top"
Author: Sarah Vowell

44. "I think the end of last year when we were aware of that transition was for everyone in their own way kind of bittersweet, but it's also what the show's about, one administration ends and another begins."
Author: Stockard Channing

45. "Just before Jie and Daniel reached the street, Daniel stopped. He twirled around and gazed up at me, as if he had sensed my eyes on his back. He strode a few steps toward me, paused, and then strode two more.He slung off his cap and pressed it to his chest. Then,with the casual grace that marked all of his movements, he dropped to one knee and bowed his head.He was declaring fealty to his empress.I laughed-I couldn't help it. The absurdity of it all. The bittersweet sting.When he lifted back up, I saw he too wore a smile.He waved with his cap, and after flopping it back on his head, he swiveled and trotted to the street. Then,without another look back, the Spirit-Hunters left."
Author: Susan Dennard

46. "To my amazement and great, bittersweet joy, I can hear in him every reason I feell in love with his father—everything, like a second sonata to a first. All the lovely unspoiled good of N, bubbling forth from his son, unlooked for, oozing up from a well of genealogy and fate. I can manage to misplace my husabnd, but this flesh is chained to mine. I will always be reminded of the marital loss, but I have the benefits of the entire play, the witness of the evolution, the new art. I see the magic every day; I live with the sorcerer in yellow pants. N gets pieces and stems of A, random and marred by guilty."
Author: Suzanne Finnamore

47. "It was warm and salty, chalky and bittersweet. It tasted like the blood of some old, old thing. I tried not to think about how much at the mercy of these strange people I now was. But in fact my courage was failing. Both Dona Catalina and the guide's mocking eyes had slowly gone cold and mantislike. A wave of insect sound sweeping up the river seemed to splatter the darkness with shards of sharpedged light. I felt my lips go numb. Trying not to appear as loaded as I felt, I crossed to my hammock and lay back. Behind my closed eyelids there was a flowing river of magenta light. It occurred to me in a kind of dream mental pirouette that a helicopter must be landing on top of the hut, and this was the last impression I had. When I regained consciousness I appeared to myself to be surfing on the inner curl of a wave of brightly lit transparent information several hundred feet high. Exhilaration gave way to terror as I realised that my wave was speeding toward a rocky coastline."
Author: Terence McKenna

48. "Our individuality is all, all, that we have. There are those who barter it for security, those who repress it for what they believe is the betterment of the whole society, but blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it in, in grace and love and wit, from peculiar station to peculiar station along life's bittersweet route."
Author: Tom Robbins

49. "They are all about romance, about life's excitement and adventure and it's essential sadness and transience. They savour everything both fine and bittersweet that life has to offer us - a stoical in the hedonism."
Author: William Boyd

50. "It's kind of bittersweet. The human spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart."
Author: Yakov Smirnoff

Bittersweet Quotes Pictures