Let there be gall in thy ink. [ William Shakespeare ]
My pen was never dipped in gall. [ Crébillon ]
A honey-tongue, a heart of gall. [ Proverb ]
Let there be gall enough in thy ink,
Though thou write with a goose-pen. [ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc. 2 ]
But through the heart
Should Jealousy its venom once diffuse
'Tis then delightful misery no more
But agony unmixed, incessant gall
Corroding every thought, and blasting all
Love's paradise. [ Thomson ]
A little gall spoils a great deal of honey. [ French Proverb ]
Too much is always bad; old proverbs call
Even too much honey nothing else than gall. [ Anon ]
Love's of itself too sweet; the best of all
Is when love's honey has a dash of gall. [ Herrick ]
Can so much gall find access in devout souls? [ Boileau ]
Yet is there one more cursed than they all.
That canker-worm, that monster, jealousie,
Which eats the heart and feeds upon the gall,
Turning all love's delight to misery.
Through fear of losing his felicity. [ Spenser ]
No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure escape; brick-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes: what king so strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? [ William Shakespeare ]
O days remembered well! remembered all!
The bitter sweet, the honey and the gall;
Those garden rambles in the silent night.
Those trees so shady, and that moon so bright.
That thickset alley by the arbor closed.
That woodbine seat where we at last reposed;
And then the hopes that came and then were gone.
Quick as the clouds beneath the moon past on. [ Crabbe ]
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. [ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet ]
Grieving for misfortunes is adding gall to wormwood. [ Proverb ]
Gall in mirth is an ill mixture, and sometimes truth is bitter. [ Proverb ]
No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. [ William Penn ]
Your tongues and your words are steeped in honey, but your hearts in gall and vinegar. [ Plaut ]
Injuries from friends fret and gall more, and the memory of them is not so easily obliterated. [ Arbuthnot ]
Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail. [ Victor Hugo ]
To despond is to be ungrateful beforehand. Be not looking for evil. Often thou drainest the gall of fear while evil is passing thy dwelling. [ Tupper ]
The world produces for every pint of honey a gallon of gall, for every dram of pleasure a pound of pain, for every inch of mirth an ell of moan; and as the ivy twines around the oak, so does misery and misfortune encompass the happy man. Felicity, pure and unalloyed felicity, is not a plant of earthly growth: her gardens are the skies. [ Robert Burton ]