Bittersweet Life Quotes

**What does the saying ‘bittersweet’ mean?**

The saying “bittersweet” is used to describe a mix of positive and negative emotions – felt at the same time.

There is both good and bad, bitter and sweet.

We all experience bittersweet moments throughout our lives. These are the moments when we feel both happy and sad at the same time as we reflect on the present, the past and the future ahead.

These moments can be triggered by a variety of things, such as big milestones in life (graduations, leaving jobs or places, the loss of loved ones and seeing your children off into the world).

Someone might say that they had a bittersweet experience if they did something that made them happy but that it also brought up some sad memories.

Alternatively, they may be experiencing a sad time in life, but the good memories that the event is invoking are also sweet and comforting to them – and they are grateful that they had this experience, despite the huge loss now.

The following collection of quotes are all about how life can be bittersweet. They are a great reminder to be grateful for what we have and that life is a journey with valleys and peaks:

“When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.” Shauna Niequist

“Life at best is bittersweet.” Jack Kirby

“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.” Jaeda Dewalt

“Victory is always bittersweet.” Nadia Scrieva

“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.” Bruno Mars

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.” Percy Bysshe Shelley

“If you begin to face your fears, something bittersweet is going to happen to you: You’ll grow up.” Martha Beck

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.” Paulo Coelho

“If you go back to your hometown or you’re reunited with school friends, it’s always slightly bittersweet because as much as there’s nice things in terms of seeing them again, the town has changed without you, and you’re no longer a part of it.” Edgar Wright

“It’s quite highly possible that I have peaked. I mean, I just can’t imagine what else I could do beyond this. It’s really a bittersweet kind of feeling.” Will Smith

“If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.” J.R.R. Tolkien

“To be running breathlessly, but not yet arrived, is itself delightful, a suspended moment of living hope.” Anne Carson

“Every match I watch will be bittersweet. It will always hurt; I’ll always miss competing. That’s what I’ve done my whole life and that burning desire is not just going to leave me.” Ryan Mason

“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.” Hermann Hesse

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

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

“We feel a kind of bittersweet pricking of malicious delight in contemplating the misfortunes of others.” Michel de Montaigne

“Life is bittersweet. Inside our heads, if we’re lucky, we’re the same kids as we were when we were young.” Hugh Hefner

Bittersweet Quotes About Love

“Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” Bob Marley

“You cannot drink the nectar of love without bleeding for its thorns.” Amit Howard

“It’s kind of bittersweet. The human spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart.” Yakov Smirnoff

“We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“In life, there are those relationships where you really love someone, but they’re just not right for you and there’s a little bittersweet feel to it.” Jennifer Morrison

“Mother’s Day is a bittersweet day for many of us. We all have mothers, but some of us have lost them.” Faith Salie

“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” Friedrich Nietzsche

“Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done.” Sappho

“Falling in love is not rational. It’s madness. A beautiful, wonderful moment of magnificent insanity.” Michael Faudet

“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.” Elizabeth Gilbert

“I finally understood what true love meant. Love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.” Nicholas Sparks

Bittersweet Quotes About Leaving

“We are nothing but shadows. Fading away trying to hold on to this bittersweet life that we call our own.” Ricky Mears

“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” Ernest Hemingway

“Love comes unseen; we only see it go.” Austin Dobson

“Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake & help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.” Mandy Hale

Bittersweet Memories Quotes

“Memories, even bittersweet ones, are better than nothing.” Jennifer Armentrout

“As a child, I remember my dad would sometimes drive me into town with him to play pinball machines together. It’s a bittersweet memory but also a favorite.” Iggy Azalea

Life is Bittersweet

Some people might argue that the saying “bittersweet” is more about the feelings it evokes than the actual events or experiences themselves. For example, if you are feeling nostalgic and look back at a time in your life when you were happy but also sad, this may be considered a bittersweet experience.

Overall, the meaning of “bittersweet” is often determined by how a person feels about their experiences or emotions.

If you’re wanting to read more about life quotes, memories and the journey of life, then check out the following:

Bittersweet Life Quotes – The Good & Bad of Life

**What does the saying ‘bittersweet’ mean?**