Bittersweet Quotes

“I'll fight it. I'll fight it for you. Don't you worry about me, Hazel Grace. I'm okay. I'll find a way to hang around and annoy you for a long time.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“Would 'sorry' have made any difference? Does it ever? It's just a word. One word against a thousand actions.”
― Sarah Ockler, Bittersweet

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

“I do not think I responded immediately, for it took me a moment or two to fully digest these words of Miss Kenton. Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such as to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed- why should I not admit it? - at that moment, my heart was breaking.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

“i have laughed
more than daffodils
and cried more than June.”
― Sanober Khan

“Isa rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? You’re the only person I know who’d get upset that the FBI’s not watching him.”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“But once in a while, you pick the right thing, the exact best thing. Every day, the moment you open your eyes and pull off your blankets, that's what you hope for. The sunshine on your face,warm enough to make you heart sing.”
― Sarah Ockler, Bittersweet

“Finishing a book is bittersweet. You spend days getting to know the characters. Learning their nuances, their faults, their loves, their lives. They become your friends, acquaintances, enemies. And after the story ends, you miss them. You look for them in your own life, wonder where they’ve gone, you forget that they aren’t real. You fall in love with the hero and dream of him at night. The strange girl becomes your best friend. Their heartaches become your heartaches. You laugh when they laugh. And cry when they die. Eventually you realise they aren’t a part of your world, you were just briefly visiting theirs.”
― Whimsical Enlightenment

“It's a good story,' he said. He even grinned at me. 'I'll tell you.'

'Please,' I said.

And then he did.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Halfway down the aisle, Jamie suddenly seemed to tire, and they stopped while she caught her breath...It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

“If there is an afterlife, I want my soul intact. And then maybe I'll see you there."I smiled, somehow calm now that I was facing something inevitable. I was getting the good-bye I'd always wanted. - Nikki”
― Brodi Ashton, Everneath

“...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...”
― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“Okay then, the blood has dried into the shirt so as I cut it away, it may sting some as I pull it away. Can you be brave for me?”
― R. Gerry Fabian, Just Out Of Reach

“Do you think we would eat supper and not include the children. No child goes hungry when I’m around.”
― R. Gerry Fabian, Just Out Of Reach

“There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you

sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates.”
― Edwin Morgan, The Second Life: Selected Poems

“A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell them for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I been singin'
Funny when you're dead how people start listenin”
― Kimberly Perry, If I Die Young: Piano/Vocal/Guitar

“I would stay away from him and leave him to go his own road where there would be other women, countless other women, who would probably give him as much physical pleasure as he had had with me. I wouldn’t care, or at least I told myself that I wouldn’t care, because none of them would ever own him—own any larger piece of him than I now did.”
― Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me

“Was it always to be like this? she wondered. A moment of joy followed by a new sorrow?”
― Soheir Khashoggi, Nadia's Song

“And you find some way to survive
And you find out you don't have to be happy at all..
To be happy you're alive.”
― Brian Yorkey

“Victory is always bittersweet.”
― Nadia Scrieva

“The sharp knife of a short life, well
I've had, just enough time.”
― Kimberly Perry

“I deserve my lollipop and I deserve my toothache.”
― Khayri R.R. Woulfe

“She said that everything that disappeared from our side went over to theirs, where they kept living normal lives, waiting for the things still lingering with us to join them, and make the world whole once more.”
― Alexandra Kleeman, Intimations: Darkly Humorous and Thought-Provoking Short Stories – Surreal Literary Fiction

“I asked her once what criteria she used when she hired people.
"I choose those who are hurt, and exhausted," she answered right away.
I couldn't help but smile. Since I thought wanting to help people who suffered in some way when dealing with books was a wonderful reason. When I heard what she said next, though, my smile retreated.
"And people who have secrets. Put those to good use, use their weaknesses to make them at my beck and call."
"Why would you do that?"
"People change. You don't know what's going to happen next. If something does happen, I want to be able to deal with it. To protect you, and this place."
My aunt was certainly not just some kind, charitable person. I knew this from a long time ago, but her words now only reinforced it.”
― Hika Harada, Dinner at the Night Library

“From the trolley, he picked up a chocolate, rolled in cacao powder. 'These are ganache truffles,' he said. 'The easiest chocolates to make. Even a child can make them. Even Mahmed could, probably.'
I took one. It smelt of darkness infused with gold; a scent that both drew and repelled me.
'I don't really like dark chocolate,' I said.
'Just try one. I made them myself, from bean to bar. Nothing artificial.'
I bit a piece from the chocolate. It was bitter and powdery, but there were other flavors there, struggling to be released.
'Rest it on your tongue for a while. Eyes closed. Mouth half open.'
I did as he said. The bitter scent started to intensify. It's odd; I didn't quite like it, and yet it was evocative. I can taste charcoal, and nutmeg, and salt, and olive, and strong wild honey. It makes me think of incense, and woodsmoke on a frosty night, and the scent of fallen leaves in the rain, and the memory of that night in the church, the warmth of the confessional.
I thought I didn't like chocolate. In fact, I never knew it. Those little squares of chocolate I'd had as a child were nothing like this.
'I know. It's different,' he said. 'It's eighty per cent cacao. It might taste a little bitter to you, but that's the nature of cacao: the stuff you get in the shops here is really mostly sugar and palm oil and fat. But this is the soul of the cacao bean. This strength. This bitter potency. And in this form, it has a kick. It sharpens the mind. Gives energy.'
I put the rest of the chocolate aside. My mouth was furred with darkness.”
― Joanne Harris, Vianne

“I hope I didn't upset your sister," Liam said.
"Don't worry. She'll forget all about it," Brigid said. "She's the sweet one, believe it or not."
"Actually, I find that very hard to believe," Liam replied.”
― Kirsten Miller, The Women of Wild Hill

“There was something sad about leaving your sadness behind.”
― Aja Gabel, Lightbreakers

“He tastes like lost dreams and a thousand sleepless nights. He tastes like young love and bitter heartbreak.”
― Stacia Stark, We Who Will Die