“
How bitter were
the Prozac pills
of the last
few hundred mornings
”
”
Leonard Cohen (Book of Longing)
“
It's okay to be absurd, ridiculous, and downright irrational at times; silliness is sweet syrup that helps us swallow the bitter pills of life.
”
”
Richelle E. Goodrich (Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year)
“
I give you bitter pills, in a sugar coating. The pills are harmless - the poison's in the sugar
”
”
James St. James (Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland)
“
This whole time she's swallowed her words like bitter pills
not realizing they were slow-drip poison.
”
”
Elizabeth Acevedo (Clap When You Land)
“
All I wanted to do was be a hero... But do I ever get to be a hero? All I ever get to be is the stupid goat!"
"Don't be discouraged, Charlie Brown... In this life we live, there are always some bitter pills to be swallowed..."
"If it's all the same with you, I'd rather not renew my perscription!
”
”
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, 1959-1960 (The Complete Peanuts, #5))
“
In light of my distanced telescopic exposure to the mayhem, I refused to plagiarise others’ personal tragedies as my own. There is an authorship in misery that costs more than empathy. Often I’d found myself dumbstruck in failed attempts to simulate that particular unfamiliar dolour. After all, no one takes pleasure in being possessed by a wailing father collecting the decapitated head of his innocent six year old. Even on the hinge of a willing attempt at full empathy with those cursed with such catastrophes, one had to have a superhuman emotional powers. I could not, in any way, claim the ability to relate to those who have been forced to swallow the never-ending bitter and poisonous pills of our inherited misfortune. Yet that excruciating pain in my chest seemed to elicit a state of agony in me, even from far behind the telescope. It could have been my tribal gene amplified by the ripple effect of the falling, moving in me what was left of my humanity.
”
”
Asaad Almohammad (An Ishmael of Syria)
“
Every morning I sit at the kitchen table over a tall glass of water swallowing pills. (So my hands won’t shake.) (So my heart won’t race.) (So my face won’t thaw.) (So my blood won’t mold.) (So the voices won’t scream.) (So I don’t reach for knives.) (So I keep out of the oven.) (So I eat every morsel.) (So the wine goes bitter.) (So I remember the laundry.) (So I remember to call.) (So I remember the name of each pill.) (So I remember the name of each sickness.) (So I keep my hands inside my hands.) (So the city won’t rattle.) (So I don’t weep on the bus.) (So I don’t wander the guardrail.) (So the flashbacks go quiet.) (So the insomnia sleeps.) (So I don’t jump at car horns.) (So I don’t jump at cat-calls.) (So I don’t jump a bridge.) (So I don’t twitch.) (So I don’t riot.) (So I don’t slit a strange man’s throat.)
”
”
Jeanann Verlee
“
During that long terrible ride to Munich, I finally swallowed the bitter pill of my lover's rejection and poisoned myself with it. I murdered the personality I was born with and transformed myself from a butterfly back in into a caterpillar. That night I learned to seek the shadows, to prefer silence
”
”
Edith Hahn Beer
“
I tumbled about New York City never really forming friendships for fear they’d just disappoint me further than I already was. I was afraid that a loss like that would be the bitter pill that would kill the little spirit I had left. - Callum Tate in Callum & Harper
”
”
Fisher Amelie
“
The drag queens who started Stonewall are no better off today, but they made the world safe for gay Republicans. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the people who make change are not the people who benefit from it
”
”
Sarah Schulman (The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination)
“
Not many people are willing to give failure a second opportunity. They fail once and it is all over. The bitter pill of failure is often more than most people can handle. If you are willing to accept failure and learn from it, if you are willing to consider failure as a blessing in disguise and bounce back, you have got the essential of harnessing one of the most powerful success forces.
”
”
Joseph Sugarman
“
If at eighty you're not a cripple or an invalid, if you have your health, if you still enjoy a good walk, a good meal (with all the trimmings), if you can sleep without first taking a pill, if birds and flowers, mountains and sea still inspire you, you are a most fortunate individual and you should get down on your knees morning and night and thank the good Lord for his savin' and keepin' power. If you are young in years but already weary in spirit, already on your way to becoming an automaton, it may do you good to say to your boss - under your breath, of course - "Fuck you, Jack! you don't own me." If you can whistle up your ass, if you can be turned on by a fetching bottom or a lovely pair of teats, if you can fall in love again and again, if you can forgive your parents for the crime of bringing you into the world, if you are content to get nowhere, just take each day as it comes, if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from going sour, surly, bitter and cynical, man you've got it half licked.
”
”
Henry Miller (Sextet: Six essays)
“
How ironic! After decades of grub, deluges of wine and alcohol of every sort, after a life spent in butter, cream, rich sauces, and oil in constant, knowingly orchestrated and meticulously cajoled excess, my trustiest right-hand men, Sir Liver and his associate Stomach, are doing marvelously well and it is my heart that is giving out. I am dying of cardiac insufficiency. What a bitter pill to swallow.
”
”
Muriel Barbery (Gourmet Rhapsody)
“
This is the only industry where technology advances have increased costs instead of lowering them.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
They say truth can be a bitter pill to swallow, but lies can be even more of a bitter pill and will fester in the belly.
”
”
Jonathan Dunne (The Squatter)
“
It’s about money: Healthcare is America’s largest industry by far, employing a sixth of the country’s workforce.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
There is a very dark and painful side to life, but that is natural. People in our culture think they should never be unhappy. They think that being unhappy is unnatural. They try to make it go away. They take pills or they go to therapy to "fix" themselves. They blame themselves or others for their suffering. We need to understand that sadness is as much a part of life as joy. It would be easy just to get bitter and cold while focusing on the dark side, but there is also an amazing, wonderful side of life. If you look for it, there is true magic all around us. Maybe that sounds trite to the hardened, self-protective modern ego, but there is magiv in this miraculous life. If you open yourself up, you do make yourself vulnerable to pain but the deeper the pain you experience, the deeper joy you have.
”
”
Mark Ryden
“
It’s hard not to be impatient with the absurdity of the young; they tell us that two and two make four as though it had never occurred to us, and they’re disappointed if we can’t share their surprise when they have discovered that a hen lays an egg. There’s a lot of nonsense in their ranting and raving, but it’s not all nonsense. One ought to sympathize with them; one ought to do one’s best to understand. One has to remember how much has to be forgotten and how much has to be learnt when for the first time one faces life. It’s not very easy to give up one’s ideals, and the brute facts of every day are bitter pills to swallow. The spiritual conflicts of adolescence can be very severe and one can do little to resolve them.
”
”
W. Somerset Maugham (Theatre)
“
It wasn’t perfect. It isn’t now. I still have days when I want to exit the system quicker then you can say, “don’t you dare give up now”, and you still have days where you can’t even taste the sweetness in raw honey and neither one of us believes in pills. Days when I so want to kiss you but your mouth is sour and my thoughts are bitter and I’m angry…just mad, just crazy with it all. But we are each others home sweet home, Love. The roof is screwed on too tight at times and the walls of our purple house can pinch a little but my God, they are always warm.
”
”
Yrsa Daley-Ward
“
We know how unsafe the world is for us. We are like cliffs staring down at a raging sea, battered by winds and salt and spray and unable to wrench ourselves away from the supposed inevitability of it all. But though we may recede under the relentless thrashing, still we stand tall. The world and all its angry currents cannot break us, no matter how hard it tries. Still, this erosion of the spirit is a bitter pill to swallow.
”
”
Clementine Ford (Fight Like a Girl)
“
Raise from your bed of languor
Raise from your bed of dismay
Your friends will not come tomorrow
As they did not come today
You must rely on yourself, they said,
You must rely on yourself,
Oh but I find this pill so bitter said the poor man
As he took it from the shelf
Crying, O sweet Death come to me
Come to me for company,
Sweet Death it is only you I can
Constrain for company.
”
”
Stevie Smith
“
Junko: That sort of thing happens all the time. You get drunk on your own "correctness," and the more stubborn you get, the further happiness flies away from you. It's a bitter pill to swallow.
Madoka: I wonder if there's any way I can help...
Junko: Even good advice from others won't bring any clear solutions to someone in that frame of mind. ...Even so, you want to find a solution? Then go ahead and screw up. If she's being too correct, then somebody should make mistakes for her.
Madoka: I should screw up...?
Junko: Yep! Tell a really bad lie. Run away in the face of something scary. She may not understand what you're trying to do at first, but there are times when you realize in hindsight that a mistake was the right thing to do... During those times when you're just stuck for an answer, making a mistake is one method of unsticking yourself. Madoka, you've grown up to be a good kid. You don't tell lies, and you don't do bad things. You're a girl who works hard at what she thinks is right. You get an "A" as a child. So before you become an adult, you have to start practicing falling down. You see, we adults have our pride and responsibilities, so it becomes harder and harder to make mistakes.
”
”
Magica Quartet (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Vol. 2 (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, #2))
“
Realizing your own mother was incapable of truly seeing you—of loving you for who you are rather than as an extension of herself—is a bitter pill to swallow. It’s the death of a fundamental childhood hope, the one where if you just try hard enough, Mommy will love you unconditionally. But in a strange way, this understanding has also been incredibly liberating. I now know that I could never have been “good” enough or “perfect” enough to make Ruby truly happy or proud. The insatiable void I was trying to fill wasn’t created by me, and it wasn’t mine to fix. That realization, as painful as it is, is the first step on the path to healing—for me, if not for her.
”
”
Shari Franke (The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom)
“
America’s total healthcare bill for 2014 is $3 trillion. That’s more than the next ten biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia. All that extra money produces no better, and in many cases worse, results.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
They say truth can be a bitter pill to swallow, but lies can be even more of a bitter pill and will fester in the belly. Molly wailed, bringing herself to the point of gagging and vomiting, as she flushed the demons from her system, these fiendish angels which had haunted her more than anything this possessed house could ever raise. She’d never spoken about why Mike and Henry had been taken in the accident; her girls never knew it should’ve been their own mother on the road that night, but she’d been all liquored up at a silly work party, and she was taking that to her grave — where she should be right now.
”
”
Jonathan Dunne (The Squatter)
“
People care about their health a lot more than they care about healthcare policies or economics.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
Sweet conversation is good for the heart and
and a good pill for forgetting bitter and wasteful
thoughts; for a moment, it mutes so many bad
thoughts and it keeps the heart calm
”
”
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah (Pills For Heathy Life)
“
Failure is always a bitter pill to swallow," Mr. Crepsley said.
”
”
Darren Shan (Hunters of the Dusk (Cirque Du Freak, #7))
“
firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.
”
”
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (My Journey: Transforming Dreams into Actions)
“
Mao was several inches taller than Stalin, and this was a bitter pill to swallow, since Stalin often referred to Asians as “tiny.
”
”
Paul Johnson (Stalin: The Kremlin Mountaineer (Icons))
“
To swallow a bitter pill, a child is made to play hopscotch for a horehound,” Dr. Praxton had said.
”
”
Dew Platt (The Dementor's Scheme)
“
You must be able to swallow bitter pills without becoming bitter.
”
”
Jonathan Heimberg
“
I swallowed my heartbreak like a bitter pill
”
”
Sakshi Narula (Loveish)
“
Regret is a bitter pill to swallow, Rebecca. Fear causes you to make extremely regrettable decisions. Even if you think you’re doing the right thing.
”
”
Jourdyn Kelly (Becoming (LA Lovers #3))
“
Everything is fine. It’ll be fine, Sadie told herself again. Sadie hated that word fine. It was a Band-Aid, a sugar-coated pill to mask the bitterness beneath. Fine was what you used when it was anything but. But fine was what she had to be because if it wasn’t, everything would unravel.
”
”
Breanne Randall (The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic)
“
waited for a long time for someone to come along and rescue me, just like in the stories. It was a bitter pill to swallow when I realized that no one would ever pick up the glass slipper I left behind.
”
”
Deborah Feldman (Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots)
“
I am not a success if all I do is fit into somebody's prescription; its better to stand out and be celebrated for being a definition. The world would prefer to take the bitter pills of an achiever than the sweet chocolates of a mediocre.
”
”
Bayode Ojo (Petals Around The Rose)
“
Germany’s emergence as a self-confident, non-aggressive, democratic power – not to speak of the humanitarian example it has set – is a pill too bitter for many of us Brits to swallow. That is a sadness that I have regretted for far too long.
”
”
John Le Carré (The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life: NOW A MAJOR APPLE TV MOTION PICTURE)
“
The rest I omit, for many a bitter Pill can be swallowed under a golden Cover: I make no Mencion that in each of my Churches I put a Signe so that he who sees the Fabrick may see also the Shaddowe of the Reality of which it is the Pattern or Figure. Thus, in the church of Lime-house, the nineteen Pillars in the Aisles will represent the Names of Baal-Berith, the seven Pillars of the Chappell will signify the Chapters of his Covenant. All those who wish to know more of this may take up Clavis Salomonis, Niceron's Thaumaturgus Opticus where he speaks of Line and Distance, Cornelius Agrippa his De occuItia philosophia and Giordano Bruno his De magia and De vinculis in genere where he speaks of Hieroglyphs and the Raising of the Devilles.
”
”
Peter Ackroyd (Hawksmoor)
“
Women can elect to put their jobs before family, but they will always be second to profits for the companies who employ them. This has been men's reality since the first paycheck, but now women have equal access to the same bitter pill of uncertainty and powerlessness
”
”
Jack Murphy (Democrat to Deplorable: Why Nine Million Obama Voters Ditched the Democrats and Embraced Donald Trump)
“
The thing is, my dear, everyone has a purpose. Even if it seems to be to walk in circles and spit on you, everyone has a use to us in this world. And that's just the aftertaste. The real, bitter pill is that every moron you encounter is actually here to make you less of one.
”
”
Misty Provencher (Keystone (Cornerstone, #2))
“
The sting of her abandonment had not lessened through the years, and I suspected it would never go away. Occasionally, I could see agony in her eyes, the shadows that flickered in the background. If I could, I'd take her pain and make it my own. I'd swallow it like a bitter pill and live with the consequences.
”
”
T.J. Forrester (Miracles, Inc.: A Novel)
“
We are in the process of instituting a reign of terror on earth, and there’s only one word that justifies that as far as these savages are concerned: the word of this or that god. In name of a divine entity we can do whatever the hell we like and most of those fools down there will swallow it like a bitter pill.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights)
“
Medicare, which pays hospitals based on their costs, plus overhead and a small profit margin, for providing each service, would have paid about $825 for all three tests. Also
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
the healthcare industry spends four times as much on lobbying as the number two Beltway spender, the much-feared military-industrial complex?
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
60 percent of the nearly one million personal bankruptcies filed in the United States last year resulted from medical bills.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
Not only did the pills keep the pain at bay, but she felt impervious. The tablets wiped away all bitterness, regret, and anger that had ever existed.
”
”
Lydia Kang (Opium and Absinthe)
“
I don’t believe in love,” he said. “It’s a sugar-coated pill—the first taste is tolerable enough, but you quickly reach the bitter layers beneath.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Again the Magic (Wallflowers, #0))
“
Most of us were fortunate enough to be born with the Blue pill until the RED pill eventually found us.
”
”
Kayo K.
“
Two years ago, Hanna said she was going on vacation with Laura downstate and instead drove to Marquette and had her tubes tied. She wasn't going to end up like her mother, with too many children in a too-small house with too little to eat. Despite her best efforts, however, she has found herself living in a too-small house with too many people and too little to eat. It is a bitter pill to swallow.
”
”
Roxane Gay (Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation)
“
At the expense of Gregor's sacrifice, the sister, at the end of the story, stretches her arrogant body and gets the liberation Gregor longed for. Under Gregor's care first, and then her parents', the sister enjoys a healthy childhood, one leading to physical and mental development, and one in which she isn't trapped. Yet our loyalty to Gregor extends even beyond death, and his sister's cheery success story offers but a bitter pill
”
”
Franz Kafka
“
There is always a happy ending in children’s books. Because I have not yet begun to read adult books, I have come to accept this convention as a fact of life as well. In the physics of imagination, this is the rule: a child can only accept a just world. I waited for a long time for someone to come along and rescue me, just like in the stories. It was a bitter pill to swallow when I realized that no one would ever pick up the glass slipper I left behind.
”
”
Deborah Feldman (Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots)
“
But feedforward lauds effort, not talent. And since effort is grown, not born, making that the focus of feedback teaches kids two things: First, and most promising, they can earn their own success. That’s life changing. Second—and this is the bitter pill—they will fall down along the way. A lot. When it comes to effort, there is no guarantee of a victory lap, just a steady stride toward the goal. Each attempt brings us a little closer to it, but never uniformly.
”
”
Joe Hirsch (The Feedback Fix: Dump the Past, Embrace the Future, and Lead the Way to Change)
“
What I want you to understand is that when I heard your words, it was as if every single second we had spent together up to that point was a lie. Every word, every touch, every kiss. You were looking at me, but you wanted him. I was this…thing to be endured to keep your family safe. You would allow me to touch you, to make love to you all the while wishing for Colin. I thought all that passion we had between us was a complete figment of my imagination and it was a bitter pill to swallow. I hated you. Worse than I’d ever hated anyone in my life. I was determined to make you pay. I’d keep you shackled to me forever as punishment. Keep you away from your true love.” Bree stared at him, unable to fathom such cruelty. Who was this man she loved that was capable of such a thing? “And then?” He took a deep shaky breath and leaned against the edge of the desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then I spent all my energy trying to prove to myself by looking at you that you were lying to me, to justify what I was doing by picking up little gestures or flickers in your eyes that would prove to me that you felt nothing for me.” Bree rolled her eyes and gave a tearful snort. “And did you, after how hard I fought for you, did you get what you wanted? Did you prove to yourself what a lying bitch I am?” “No. Of course not. So I started to doubt what I heard.” “After living with Bernardo for all your life it had just occurred to you that he just may have tampered with the fucking thing?” Bree bit out, furiously.
”
”
E. Jamie (The Betrayal (Blood Vows, #2))
“
The cost spikes for the government programs that protected the elderly and the poor were even worse. Better medical care kept people alive longer, and that meant Medicare had to pay for more complicated and more expensive treatment during those prolonged lives.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
Brightly and merrily swaying, like an April shower, came the young lady.
Perhaps if she had been sad and conscience stricken, like certain dames of old who left the site of their illicit love as woe-begone as the passing moment that never returns; if the lady had approached in full cognizance of her frailty, ready to forego a man's respectful handkisses of greeting, and trembling in shame at the tryst exposed in broad daylight, like Risoulette, sixty-six times, whenever having misbehaved, she hastened back home teary-eyed to her Captain; or if a lifelong memory's untearable veil had floated over her fine features, like the otherworldly wimple of a nun . . . Then Pistoli would have stood aside, closed his eyes, swallowed the bitter pill, and come next winter, might have scrawled on the wall something about women's unpredictability. Then he would have glimpsed ghostly, skeletal pelvic bones reflected in his wine goblet, and strands of female hair, once wrapped around the executioner's wrist, hanging from his rafters; and would have heard wails and cackles emanating from the cellar's musty wine casks, but eventually Pistoli would have forgiven this fading memory, simply because women are related to the sea and the moon, and that is why at times they know not what they do.
”
”
Gyula Krúdy (Sunflower)
“
The Mad Gardener's Song
He thought he saw an Elephant,
That practised on a fife:
He looked again, and found it was
A letter from his wife.
'At length I realise,' he said,
'The bitterness of Life!'
He thought he saw a Buffalo
Upon the chimney-piece:
He looked again, and found it was
His Sister's Husband's Niece.
'Unless you leave this house,' he said,
'I'll send for the Police!'
He thought he saw a Rattlesnake
That questioned him in Greek:
He looked again, and found it was
The Middle of Next Week.
'The one thing I regret,' he said,
'Is that it cannot speak!'
He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk
Descending from the bus:
He looked again, and found it was
A Hippopotamus.
'If this should stay to dine,' he said,
'There won't be much for us!'
He thought he saw a Kangaroo
That worked a coffee-mill:
He looked again, and found it was
A Vegetable-Pill.
'Were I to swallow this,' he said,
'I should be very ill!'
He thought he saw a Coach-and-Four
That stood beside his bed:
He looked again, and found it was
A Bear without a Head.
'Poor thing,' he said, 'poor silly thing!
It's waiting to be fed!'
He thought he saw an Albatross
That fluttered round the lamp:
He looked again, and found it was
A Penny-Postage Stamp.
'You'd best be getting home,' he said:
'The nights are very damp!'
He thought he saw a Garden-Door
That opened with a key:
He looked again, and found it was
A Double Rule of Three:
'And all its mystery,' he said,
'Is clear as day to me!'
He thought he saw a Argument
That proved he was the Pope:
He looked again, and found it was
A Bar of Mottled Soap.
'A fact so dread,' he faintly said,
'Extinguishes all hope!
”
”
Lewis Carroll (Sylvie and Bruno)
“
Ah, how lucky are the lieutenants, the six-foot Junkers, and all the rest of the Don Juan clan!... The bookworm, be he ever so decent and clever, is really only pleasing to himself and a small handful of others. The world passes him by and beckons to life and beauty ... to gay and handsome creatures to whom the hearts of their fellow men continue to turn.
”
”
Theodor Fontane
“
The war broke out overseas, and Holger started to fret. As the months passed, he grew steadily more unhappy. He had no deep political convictions, but he found he hated the Nazis with a fervor that astonished us both. When the Germans entered his country, he went on a three-day jag. However, the occupation began fairly peacefully. The Danish government had swallowed the bitter pill, remained at home – the only such government which did – and accepted the status of a neutral power under German protection. Don’t think that didn’t take courage. Among other things, it meant the king was for some years able to prevent the outrages, especially upon Jews, which the citizens of other occupied nations suffered. Holger
”
”
Poul Anderson (Three Hearts and Three Lions (Holger Danske Book 1))
“
Only one solution presented itself. I went from chemist to chemist buying packets of paracetamol. I bought only a few packets at a time to avoid arousing suspicion—but I needn’t have worried. No one paid me the least attention; I was clearly as invisible as I felt. It was cold in my room, and my fingers were numb and clumsy as I tore open the packets. It took an immense effort to swallow all the tablets. But I forced them all down, pill after bitter pill. Then I crawled onto my uncomfortable narrow bed. I shut my eyes and waited for death. But death didn’t come. Instead a searing, gut-wrenching pain tore through my insides. I doubled up and vomited, throwing up bile and half-digested pills all over myself. I lay in the dark, a fire burning in my stomach, for what seemed like eternity.
”
”
Alex Michaelides (The Silent Patient)
“
Unfortunately, Primrose, while delighted to be asked, was equally unhelpful.
"Oh, Percy, simply see if she'd like to be wooed and then woo her. Must you make everything so complicated?"
"I hardly think wandering up and saying, Pardon me, Dr Ruthven, but would you like to be courted by, well, me? is particularly romantic. Or is it? I really don't know.
Prim rolled her eyes. "Say it in Latin."
Percy actually considered that. But it seemed just as daunting. If not more so. Latin made it real.
The thing was, his entire life, Percy had been good at anything he put his mind to. But only those things. He was perfectly well aware that in matters convivial he was an abysmal failure. Arsenic was important, so he didn't want to fail her. It was a bitter pill to swallow, doctor pun intended, but he figured he ought to read up on such things as love poetry and romance before he attempted anything like a direct approach.
”
”
Gail Carriger (Reticence (The Custard Protocol, #4))
“
BLACK WINGS At the same Olympics, staged by Hitler to consecrate the superiority of his race, the star that shone brightest was black, a grandson of slaves, born in Alabama. Hitler had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill, four of them actually: the four gold medals that Jesse Owens won in sprinting and long jump. The entire world celebrated those victories of democracy over racism. When the champion returned home, he received no congratulations from the president, nor was he invited to the White House. He returned to the usual: he boarded buses by the back door, ate in restaurants for Negroes, used bathrooms for Negroes, stayed in hotels for Negroes. For years, he earned a living running for money. Before the start of baseball games he would entertain the crowd by racing against horses, dogs, cars, or motorcycles. Later on, when his legs were no longer what they had been, Owens took to the lecture circuit. He did pretty well there, praising the virtues of religion, family, and country.
”
”
Eduardo Galeano (Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone)
“
Humanist dramas unfold when people have uncomfortable desires. For example, it is extremely uncomfortable when Romeo of the house of Montague falls in love with Juliet of the house of Capulet, because the Montagues and Capulets are bitter enemies. The technological solution to such dramas is to ensure we never have uncomfortable desires. How much pain and sorrow would have been avoided if, instead of drinking poison, Romeo and Juliet could just take a pill or wear a helmet that would have redirected their star-crossed love towards other people.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow)
“
Morbidity and Mortality Rounds
Forgive me, body before me, for this.
Forgive me for my bumbling hands, unschooled
in how to touch: I meant to understand
what fever was, not love. Forgive me for
my stare, but when I look at you, I see
myself laid bare. Forgive me, body, for
what seems like calculation when I take
a breath before I cut you with my knife,
because the cancer has to be removed.
Forgive me for not telling you, but I’m
no poet. Please forgive me, please. Forgive
my gloves, my callous greeting, my unease—
you must not realize I just met death
again. Forgive me if I say he looked
impatient. Please, forgive me my despair,
which once seemed more like recompense. Forgive
my greed, forgive me for not having more
to give you than this bitter pill. Forgive:
for this apology, too late, for those
like me whose crimes might seem innocuous
and yet whose cruelty was obvious.
Forgive us for these sins. Forgive me, please,
for my confusing heart that sounds so much
like yours. Forgive me for the night, when I
sleep too, beside you under the same moon.
Forgive me for my dreams, for my rough knees,
for giving up too soon. Forgive me, please,
for losing you, unable to forgive.
”
”
Rafael Campo
“
As youngest among us, but small no more,
Your life can be trying, for we have the chore
Of becoming your teachers, a terrible bore.
"We've got experience! Take it from me!"
"We've done this all before, you see.
We know the ropes, we know the same."
Since time immemorial, always the same.
One's own shortcomings are nothing but fluff,
But everyone else's are heavier stuff:
Faultfinding comes easy when this is our plight,
But it's hard for your parents, try as they might,
To treat you with fairness, and kindness as well;
Nitpicking's a habit that's hard to dispel.
Men you're living with old folks, all you can do
Is put up with their nagging -- it's hard but it's true.
The pill may be bitter, but down it must go,
For it's meant to keep the peace, you know.
The many months here have not been in vain,
Since wasting time noes against your Brain.
You read and study nearly all the day,
Determined to chase the boredom away.
The more difficult question, much harder to bear,
Is "What on earth do I have to wear?
I've got no more panties, my clothes are too tight,
My shirt is a loincloth, I'm really a siaht!
To put on my shoes I must off my toes,
Dh dear, I'm plagued with so many woes!
”
”
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
“
THERE WERE BANKS of candles flickering in the distance and clouds of incense thickening the air with holiness and stinging his eyes, and high above him, as if it had always been there but was only now seen for what it was (like a face in the leaves of a tree or a bear among the stars), there was the Mystery Itself whose gown was the incense and the candles a dusting of gold at the hem. There were winged creatures shouting back and forth the way excited children shout to each other when dusk calls them home, and the whole vast, reeking place started to shake beneath his feet like a wagon going over cobbles, and he cried out, “O God, I am done for! I am foul of mouth and the member of a foul-mouthed race. With my own two eyes I have seen him. I’m a goner and sunk.” Then one of the winged things touched his mouth with fire and said, “There, it will be all right now,” and the Mystery Itself said, “Who will it be?” and with charred lips he said, “Me,” and Mystery said “GO.” Mystery said, “Go give the deaf Hell till you’re blue in the face and go show the blind Heaven till you drop in your tracks because they’d sooner eat ground glass than swallow the bitter pill that puts roses in the cheeks and a gleam in the eye. Go do it.” Isaiah said, “Do it till when?” Mystery said, “Till Hell freezes over.” Mystery said, “Do it till the cows come home.” And that is what a prophet does for a living, and, starting from the year that King Uzziah died when he saw and heard all these things, Isaiah went and did it.
”
”
Frederick Buechner (Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechne)
“
She began to think of all the people in Belfast who were drinking or drugging themselves into bearable insensibility that night. People would be hitting other people in the face with broken bottles. People were avowing and making love to people for whom they truly cared nothing; other people were screaming hatred at those whom they really did love. People were destroying things, daubing walls with paint and breaking up telephone boxes; joy-riding stolen cars into stone walls. In hospitals and homes, people were watching others dying, hoping and praying that the inevitable would not happen, while other people were planning murder. People elsewhere were trying to commit suicide, fumbling with change for the gas meter or emptying brown plastic bottles of their pills and tablets, which were bitter and dry in the mouth.
And there are, she thought, there must be, people who think as I do.
”
”
Deirdre Madden (Hidden Symptons)
“
it died away, Stu said: “This wasn’t on the agenda, but I wonder if we could start by singing the National Anthem. I guess you folks remember the words and the tune.” There was that ruffling, shuffling sound of people getting to their feet. Another pause as everyone waited for someone else to start. Then a girl’s sweet voice rose in the air, solo for only the first three syllables: “Oh, say can—” It was Frannie’s voice, but for a moment it seemed to Larry to be underlaid by another voice, his own, and the place was not Boulder but upstate Vermont and the day was July 4, the Republic was two hundred and fourteen years old, and Rita lay dead in the tent behind him, her mouth filled with green puke and a bottle of pills in her stiffening hand. A chill of gooseflesh passed over him and suddenly he felt that they were being watched, watched by something that could, in the words of that old song by The Who, see for miles and miles and miles. Something awful and dark and alien. For just a moment he felt an urge to run from this place, just run and never stop. This was no game they were playing here. This was serious business; killing business. Maybe worse. Then other voices joined in. “—can you see, by the dawn’s early light,” and Lucy was singing, holding his hand, crying again, and others were crying, most of them were crying, crying for what was lost and bitter, the runaway American dream, chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected, and stepping out over the line, and suddenly his memory was not of Rita, dead in the tent, but of he and his mother at Yankee Stadium—it was September 29, the Yankees were only a game and a half behind the Red Sox, and all things were still possible. There were fifty-five thousand people in the Stadium, all standing, the players in the field with their caps over their hearts, Guidry on the mound, Rickey Henderson was standing in deep left field (“—by the twilight’s last gleaming—”), and the light-standards were on in the purple gloaming, moths and night-fliers banging softly against them, and New York was around them, teeming, city of night and light. Larry joined the singing too, and when it was done and the applause rolled out once more, he was crying a bit himself. Rita was gone. Alice Underwood was gone. New York was gone. America was gone. Even if they could defeat Randall Flagg, whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams.
”
”
Stephen King (The Stand)
“
At this point the room erupted – question after question raining down on Helen. It was a sustained assault but Helen had no choice but to weather it, however damaging or provocative the questions were. She needed the public to be vigilant, so she needed the press onside. It was a bitter pill to swallow but the situation was critical now. Sometimes in life you have to feed the hand that bites you.
”
”
M.J. Arlidge (Eeny Meeny (Helen Grace, #1))
“
Everything belongs to God. Here is the wisdom children already know and adults struggle to remember. Nothing is ours. A bitter pill for those who pursue the world, but a sweet remedy for those who desire freedom above all else.
”
”
Edward Weiss
“
That’s how it begins: my story of great joys and challenges, of setbacks and successes and bitter pills to swallow, but most importantly, my story is one of love and forgiveness. These are the experiences I want to share because if I’ve learned anything, it’s that life is our best teacher and we’d better not cut any classes.
”
”
Chiquis Rivera (Forgiveness: A Memoir)
“
Psychological consultants"
(The propaganda) organization can be the integration of an entire population into cells by agents in each block of residences; in that case. It operates inside a society by integrating the whole social body. (Of course this is accompanied by all the psychological work needed to press people into cells.) Or an effective transformation can be made in the economic political, or social domain. We know that the propagandist is also a psychological consultant to governments; he indicates what measures should or should not be taken to facilitate certain psychological manipulations. It is too often believed that propaganda serves the purpose of sugar-coating bitter pills, of making people accept policies they would not accept spontaneously. But in most cases propaganda seeks to point out courses of action desirable in themselves, such as helpful reforms. Propaganda then becomes this mixture of the actual satisfaction given to the people by the reforms and subsequent exploitation of that satisfaction.
”
”
Jacques Ellul (Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes)
“
spluttering and gasping, coughing and retching, trying to clear the painfully burning fluid from his lungs. And suddenly, the dread that lurks in every Australian’s mind brought panic. Sharks! But there were no sharks, he knew that. The protein-rich predators had been fished out all along the east coast, were virtually extinct. All
”
”
A. Bertram Chandler (The Bitter Pill)
“
wish you could do something about the Australian tobacco industry,’ said the Prime Minister gloomily, grinding the malodorous butt out in the ashtray.
”
”
A. Bertram Chandler (The Bitter Pill)
“
He sang, Farewell to the homeworld forever, Farewell to each warm, golden day, Farewell to the seas and the forests, For we’re bound out for Botany Bay! ‘Botany Bay was better than where we’re bound for,’ said Clayton. ‘But my ancestors weren’t real criminals. They only picked a few pockets or burgled a few houses. They weren’t guilty of the real crime — passing their forty-fifth birthdays!’ Singing, tooral I ooral I addy, Singing torool I ooral I ay, Singing tooral I ooral I addy — And we’re bound out for Botany Bay!
”
”
A. Bertram Chandler (The Bitter Pill)
“
To the best of my abilities, I made it sad and true to the laughable mess of addicted youth. Also bitter. In one of my strips, Crash is filling his pill-mill scrip and the pharmacy lady leans over to warn him, “This one’s strong, hon. The Purdue rep takes it so he can sleep nights.
”
”
Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead)
“
the megacity that stretched from Newcastle to Wollongong. Ten miles to the south a man-made constellation skimmed rapidly over the sea surface — masthead lights, green starboard light, accommodation and deck lights — the roar of its progress
”
”
A. Bertram Chandler (The Bitter Pill)
“
Other Novels Bring Back Yesterday (1961) Rendezvous on a Lost World (1961) (aka When the Dream Dies) The Hamelin Plague (1963) Beyond the Galactic Rim (1963) Glory Planet (1964) The Deep Reaches of Space (1964) The Sea Beasts (1971) The Bitter Pill (1974) Up to the Sky in Ships (1982) Kelly Country (1983) Frontier of the Dark (1984) From Sea to Shining Star (1990)
”
”
A. Bertram Chandler (The Hamelin Plague)
“
That a woman—of age, well-read, and well-educated—could not be expected to comprehend the stirrings of the heart when men grew passionate for a cause, or grew restless for change, was a grave affront indeed. That her beloved father, who carefully nurtured her every curiosity, and her brother, who lovingly shared every lesson learned, would believe her to be insensible or incapable of aspiring to better the world tore at her heart. She strove to maintain some sort of equanimity but the nature of the events was far too implausible to allow.
“It is a bitter pill to swallow,” she murmured at length. “It seems the men in my family deemed it necessary to withhold their dearest worldly concerns from me, after all we had been to one another.
”
”
Mirta Ines Trupp (Celestial Persuasion)
“
Burying my face in her long hair, I indulge in a deep inhale. The scents, both real and imagined, intermingle inside of me. Fresh waffles and syrup. Fire and burned, cooking flesh. Blooming wildflowers and falling leaves. Slick blood and the bitter tinge of pills. Everything I think home should smell like and the dark reality of the world we actually call home.
”
”
J. Rose (Sacrificial Sinners (Blackwood Institute, #2))
“
Compliments and criticisms : they are sweet syrups and bitter pills for us to swallow and get better and better as the days roll by.
”
”
Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
“
Honesty is a quality Patrick likes. Give him a bitter pill if the situation demands it, but don't tell him it's chocolate.
”
”
Leta Blake (Will & Patrick Wake Up Married (Wake Up Married, #1))
“
Ho. What’s so surprising? Asach aahe. It is what it is. Bambai is a bitter pill. Take large gulps of water and swallow it, or its bitterness will quickly begin to sphraidd in your mouth, making it impossible for you to gulp it down,” said Laxmi.
”
”
Aditya Kripalani (Tikli and Laxmi Bomb: To Hell with Patriarchy)
“
When life is a bitter pill to swallow, you gotta to hold on to what you believe. Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
”
”
Bon Jovi
“
It is a remarkable irony that many of the best shows in London— Chicago, Oklahoma!—and even such harmless diversions as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast—are imports from the colonies, while the homegrown productions include such luxurious twaddle as Mamma Mia!, Bombay Dreams, and Starlight Express. Brits who view’ American culture with disdain are the ones who must pay the freight here, being careful not to throw stones from inside their glass houses. Though it is doubtless a bitter pill to swallow, not everything that is idiotic, pandering, or unsophisticated originated in the land of the free and the home of Kenny G. Americans did not invent Cats.
”
”
Joe Queenan (Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country)
“
And because we don’t control the prices of prescription drugs the way every other developed country does, we typically spend 50 percent more on them than what people or governments everywhere else spend.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
America’s total healthcare bill for 2014 is $3 trillion. That’s more than the next ten biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia. All that extra money produces no better, and in many cases worse, results. There
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
60 percent of the nearly one million personal bankruptcies filed in the United States last year resulted from medical bills. Even
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
The third leg of the stool addressed that. As with the old Nixon plan, there would be government subsidies for people below certain income levels so that they could buy policies.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
Cutting healthcare costs means cutting someone’s income”—income that represented close to a sixth of the economy and, therefore, wielded unequaled power in terms of money and breadth. THE
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
Healthcare is America’s largest industry by far, employing a sixth of the country’s workforce. And it is the average American family’s largest single expense, whether paid out of their pockets or through taxes and insurance premiums. It
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
Harvard Business Review would later cite a 2007 study reporting that medical bills “had become a factor in 62 per cent of personal bankruptcies, an increase from just 8 per cent in 1981.” If
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
I’ll be the judge of that! I command you to speak at once!” “Permit me to land us first,” he said. And not waiting for her permission, he turned onto the base leg, brought the wings into optimum lift, settled gently onto the bright orange pad atop the roof. “Now,” Alia said. “Speak.” “I told him that to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.” She shook her head. “That’s . . . that’s . . .” “A bitter pill,” he said, watching the guards run toward them across the roof, taking up their escort positions.
”
”
Frank Herbert (Dune Messiah (Dune, #2))
“
Field Collapse. The answer to Schrodinger's dilemma is what we now call field collapse. In QFT, when a field quantum interacts, it must interact as a unit. Half of the quantum cannot do one thing while the other half does another. If a quantum is absorbed by a molecule, the entire quantum must be absorbed, no matter how spread out it may be. If a quantum is scattered by a molecule in a cloud chamber, it can interact only with that molecule, and not with several molecules at the same time. As Art Hobson wrote,
The tracks are made by successive individual interactions between a matter field and gas or water molecules. The matter field collapses...each time it interacts with a molecule, while spreading out as a matter field between impacts.
However, I must remind you that field collapse, while a necessary consequence of the quantum nature of fields, is not described by the equations of QFT. This problem will be discussed further in Chapter 8 (The Gaps). Nonetheless, and even though many physicists find it a bitter pill to swallow, there is nothing inconsistent or paradoxical about field collapse. It just isn't what we expected.
”
”
Rodney A. Brooks (Fields of Color: The theory that escaped Einstein)
“
The worst thing about pills was that they worked. Without them, you might just adapt; medical optimism suspended you in a maintenance reality. He'd never known how sick he was until he'd gotten health insurance. The pill that really wanted inventing was the bitter one that cured you of optimism and made time go faster.
”
”
Tony Tulathimutte (Private Citizens)
“
It is a bitter pill to swallow, I know. But for a fleeting moment in time, the only two people on earth with holes in their heads found each other. They just got the timing wrong is all.
”
”
Matthew Good (The Man With The Hole In His Head)
“
By 7:30 the next morning, October 2, kynect had had 88,119 unique visitors. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three people had been enrolled—compared to six on the federal exchange covering thirty-six states.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
the healthcare industry spends four times as much on lobbying as the number two Beltway spender, the much-feared military-industrial complex? It
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
First, there was the galloping cost of advances in the science of medicine. While all that progress was good news—I’m glad they invented that MRI to pinpoint what was going on in my chest—it ballooned healthcare costs across the board. As
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)
“
If that hurdle could be overcome, Orszag added, the best ways to cut costs would be to use information technology to judge and act on the comparative effectiveness of drugs, medical devices, and other treatments. Moreover, the system had to be overhauled to pay doctors and hospitals based on their results, not on the fee-for-service basis of how many times a doctor saw a patient or how many tests the doctor ordered.
”
”
Steven Brill (America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System)