70 Bitterness Quotes About Letting Go and Reclaiming Positivity

These bitterness quotes explain why being bitter is bad for your health and your soul.

We are all human so we have all felt anger (in fact psychologists refer to anger as one of the six universal emotions), but sometimes anger can grow into resentment, and then ultimately, bitterness.

It is perfectly normal to experience anger and people shouldn’t hide from their feelings just because anger is a “negative” emotion.

Anger can push us into making a decision that we know has needed to be made for a long time, but couldn’t do it for whatever reason.

It can also make us feel passion and even excitement.

The trouble with being angry, or staying angry for so long, is that it turns into chronic bitterness.

Since becoming a bitter person is not something that people want for themselves or their loved ones, it can be helpful to spot the signs before it spirals out of control.

One sign that your anger is leading you down the path of bitterness is a chronic negative attitude or the feeling like your emotions are always ‘negative.’

The negativity surrounding a bitter person is crippling, but a lot of the time, they are unaware of how bad it has actually gotten.

Keep reading through these quotes about being bitter, and how to help those you love, move past their anger and resentment and find some positivity in the world again.

Don’t forget to also check out these insightful anger quotes to learn from.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here.

Bitterness quotes on why it’s bad for us to be bitter

1. “It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.” ― Lech Walesa

You will also enjoy our article on forgiveness quotes.

2. “Worry, hate, fear-together with their offshoots: anxiety, bitterness, impatience, avarice, unkindness, judgmentalness, and condemnation-all attack the body at the cellular level. It is impossible to have a healthy body under these conditions.” ― Neale Donald Walsch

3. “Bitterness and resentment only hurt one person, and it’s not the person we’re resenting – it’s us.” ― Alana Stewart

4. “Bitterness kills the soul.” ― Anthony Ray Hinton

5. “Hurt leads to bitterness, bitterness to anger, travel too far that road and the way is lost.” ― Terry Brooks

6. “I know from personal experience how damaging it can be to live with bitterness and unforgiveness. I like to say it’s like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. And it really is that harmful to us to live this way.” ― Joyce Meyer

You will also enjoy our article on letting go quotes.

7. “Some carry the burden of bitterness and resentfulness for many years.” ― Joseph B. Wirthlin

8. “It’s not just what you eat that matters, it’s what eats you. You can have all the right macrobiotics and organic food, but if your body is filled with resentment, worry, fear, lust, guilt, anger, bitterness, or any other emotional disease, it’s going to shorten your life.” ― Rick Warren

9. “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” ― Carrie Fisher

10. “The more we hold on to our hurts, anger and bitterness, the more we become slaves to unforgiveness.” ― Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Bitterness quotes about love and heartbreak

11. “Beauty, more than bitterness, makes the heartbreak.” ― Sara Teasdale

12. “Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.” ― A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

13. “I’ve purged myself of bitterness and anger and remained open to love.” ― Tatum O’Neal

14. “Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

15. “I think you have to pay for love with bitter tears.” ― Edith Piaf

16. “But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes.” ― William Shakespeare

17. “I choose love. No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness, I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.” ― Max Lucado

18. “Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love harmonies it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

19. “And there, in that phrase, the bitterness leaks again out of my pen. What a dull lifeless quality this bitterness is. If I could I would write with love, but if I could write with love I would be another man; I would never have lost love.” ― Graham Greene

20. “I started realizing how the condition of our hearts affects the way we see. If your heart is full of bitterness, anger, and resentment, you’re going to look at this world as a very evil place.” ― Danny Gokey

Bitterness quotes about life and advice on how to avoid becoming resentful

21. “The worst thing in life is not to die but to live with bitterness.” ― Vitor Belfort

22. “Bitterness and unforgiveness block the flow of God’s blessing in your life and actually hinder your prayers.” ― Victoria Osteen

23. “People go forward in life. Bitterness and grudges and resentments only poison it.” ― David Furnish

24. “Something my mum taught me years and years and years ago, is life’s just too short to carry around a great bucket-load of anger and resentment and bitterness and hatreds and all that sort of stuff.” ― Kevin Rudd

25. “Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.” ― Rumi

26. “Don’t be so bitter about a bad experience from your past that you miss the opportunities in front of you.” ― Robert Kiyosaki

27. “It is a simple but sometimes forgotten truth that the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness.” ― Robert Menzies

28. “Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

29. “The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.” ― Anatole France

30. “If I thought about it, I could be bitter, but I don’t feel like being bitter. Being bitter makes you immobile, and there’s too much that I still want to do.” ― Richard Pryor

Bitterness quotes about fake friends and harsh words

31. “Words can be said in bitterness and anger, and often there seems to be an element of truth in the nastiness. And words don’t go away, they just echo around.” ― Jane Goodall

32. “Have you ever thought how one phrase, one sentence, one troll can ruin someone’s entire life? Why do we interfere in their private lives? Think of others as our properties? And say whatever bitterness is in our hearts without thinking twice?” ― Saba Qamar

33. “Satire is focused bitterness.” ― Leo Rosten

34. “Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.” ― Samuel Johnson

35. “Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.” ― Victor Hugo

36. “There are many kinds of smiles, each having a distinct character. Some announce goodness and sweetness, others betray sarcasm, bitterness and pride; some soften the countenance by their languishing tenderness, others brighten by their spiritual vivacity.” ― Johann Kaspar Lavater

37. “There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.” ― Chanakya

38. “Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small offenses.” ― Robert Burton

39. “Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle.” ― Soren Kierkegaard

40. “Bitter words normally evaporate with the moisture of breath, after a quarrel. In order to become permanent, they require transcribers, reporters, complicit black hearts.” ― Barbara Kingsolver

More bitterness quotes and sayings

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

42. “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.” ― Harry Emerson Fosdick

43. “It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.” ― William Makepeace Thackeray

44. “We need the compassion and the courage to change the conditions that support our suffering. Those conditions are things like ignorance, bitterness, negligence, clinging, and holding on.” ― Sharon Salzberg

45. “If people become kinder to each other and begin to forgive some bitterness, if they begin to love their neighbor as the Most High loves us, then I am for it.” ― Oleksandr Usyk

46. “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” ― Corrie Ten Boom

47. “I wrap the potential for bitterness, resentment, martyrdom in the blanket of forgiveness and just set it down. Then it just melts in the warmth. And goes away.” ― Mary Anne Radmacher

48. “Gentleness is the ability to bear reproaches and slights with moderation, and not to embark on revenge quickly, and not to be easily provoked to anger, but be free from bitterness and contentiousness, having tranquility and stability in the spirit.” ― Aristotle

49. “I don’t hold grudges or bitterness about the past.” ― Rahul Roy

50. “Despair and bitterness are not the only songs in the world.” ― Stephen R. Donaldson

Bitterness quotes that are totally relatable

51. “Only courageous hearts can endure the bitterness of truth.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

52. “Bitterness is how we punish ourselves for other people’s sins.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

53. “Life is like that…sometimes you have to peel off the bitterness in order to get to the part that is sweet.” ― Ken Poirot

54. “A person who is too proud in love will suffer from the devastating bitterness in the end.” ― Eraldo Banovac

55. “So bitter is the taste in my mouth, when I remember making that choice.” ― Kristy McGinnis

56. “Those bitter memories felt like a wrongly inked tattoo; it sticks to me adamantly even when I want to get rid of it.” ― Misbah Khan

57. “Never trust the sweetness of the tongue and never doubt the bitterness of the truth.” ― Aiyaz Uddin

58. “It’s better to get busy then to stay bitter.” ― Charles F. Glassman

59. “To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.” ― Flannery O’Connor

60. “I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.” ― Henry David Thoreau

Bitterness Quotes To Set You Free

61. “There’s a lot of bitterness, there’s a lot of anger out there. We all have to work hard to heal those wounds.” — Allen Boyd

62. “All the sorrow, all the bitterness, all the sadness, I forget them and ignore them in the joy of working.” — Camille Pissarro

63. Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure.” — Bertrand Russell

64. “Bitterness only consumes the vessel that contains it.” — Rubin Carter

65. “I don’t bear any bitterness towards anyone.” — Gloria Trevi

66. As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” — Nelson Mandela

67. “Impermanence is the very essence of joy-the drop of bitterness that enables one to perceive the sweet.” — Myrtle Reed

68. “I refuse to let what happened to me make me bitter.” — Nicole Kidman

69. “Bitterness is a nonproductive, toxic emotion, usually resulting from resentment over unmet needs.” — Craig Groeschel

70. “From the heart of the fountain of delight rises a jet of bitterness that tortures us among the very flowers.” — Lucretius

What did you learn from these bitterness quotes?

Typically, people do not become bitter overnight, and there is often some experience (or multiple experiences) from their past that have contributed to the resentment and anger they live with.

Here are few signs that you or a loved one might need some help overcoming these emotions.

The first one is making generalized statements all the time.

Do you have that friend who constantly says that men are awful, or all men lie?

Does she do this even though you are in a happy relationship and she likes your partner?

This is a sign that she has been hurt or disappointed by men in the past, and if she makes a comment about terrible men are every chance she can, despite knowing some “good men,” then she is being bitter.

The same scenario holds true for the guys that talk negatively about all women.

These types of generalized statements are a pretty good indicator that some bitterness is bubbling under the surface.

Another characteristic of a bitter person is their inability to let anything go and always hold grudges, even the little things!

Try to remember not to sweat the small stuff.

You might often feel like the people you think of as bitter are also a little narcissistic.

They might complain a lot or often seem jealous of others.

The key to moving past being bitter is to find forgiveness, which is something that only they can decide to do, but there are a few things you can do to help.

Don’t share news with this person that you want kept private, or are looking for support or congratulations for.

Let them know if all they do is complain.

You can tell them that if they are looking for answers you can help them talk it through, but if they are just looking to complain that you can not listen.

Be polite, but that doesn’t mean you have to agree with their statements or anger and let them know that you disagree.

It is not going to be an easy time, but hopefully, these bitterness quotes and sayings helped point you in the right direction, whether that is trying to help a loved one be less bitter, or whether you are working on that yourself.