Click here for a Good Morning America video of man who literally cuts everything in half to comply with a court order to give his wife half of everything.

“Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” [Attributed variously]

“Holding a grudge is like letting someone live rent-free in your head.” [Author unknown]

“Bitterness is cancer - it eats upon the host.” [Maya Angelou (1928 – May 2014) was an internationally acclaimed American author, poet, most famous for her autobiography I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.]

“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 (1894 – 1978), was an Australian politician and the 12th Prime Minister of Australia.]

“When someone hurts you, cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it.” [Author unknown]

“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 (1918 - 2013) was anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served 27 years in prison for his activism, and later became the President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.]

“Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.” [Author unknown]

“Part of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who ca't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who are't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.” [Fred Rogers (1928 – 2003) was an American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, author, and television host, most famous for creating and hosting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.]

“We live with the scars we choose.” [Author unknown]

“A bitter man needs to place his troubles on the front of his tongue so that they taste sweeter.” [Jay Wickre, author Dubious Musings of a Peculiar Man.]

“Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.” [Alain de Botton (1969 - ) is a Swiss writer, philosopher, and British television personality.]

“There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.” [Erwin W. Lutzer (1941 - ) is an evangelical Christian pastor, teacher and author.]

“Every test in our life makes us bitter or better. Every problems comes to break us or make us. The choice is ours whether we become victim or victor.” [Author unknown]

“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 (1955 - ) is an American novelist, essayist and poet.]

“Up from behind a sand dune close beside her rose the form of her enemy Bitterness. He did not come any nearer, having learned a little more prudence, and was not going to make her call for the Shepherd if he could avoid it, but simply stood and looked at her and laughed and laughed again, the bitterest sound that Much-Afraid had heard in all her life.” [Hannah Hurnard, as quoted from Hinds' Feet on High Places.]

“Never be bitter, become better. A testimony is pain that has been reassigned” [Johnnie Dent Jr., is a modern American author, speaker, youth counselor and talk show host, dedicated to social reform in the African American community through the restorative power of the Gospel message.]

“Cries for justice are often the bitter laments of the vengeful.” [Wayne Gerard Trotman (1964 - ), is a British independent filmmaker, writer, photographer, composer and producer of electronic music.

“Unforgiveness is choosing to stay trapped in a jail cell of bitterness, serving time for someone else’s crime.” [Author unknown]

“Latent in every man is a venom of amazing bitterness, a black resentment; something that curses and loathes life, a feeling of being trapped, of having trusted and been fooled, of being the helpless prey of impotent rage, blind surrender, the victim of a savage, ruthless power that gives and takes away, enlists a man, and crowning injury inflicts upon him the humiliation of feeling sorry for himself.” [Paul Valéry (1871-1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher.]

“Allowing bitterness into your life is like spraying yourself with a can of loving relationship repellant.” [Author unknown]

“The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. And the first to forget is the happiest.” [Author unknown]

There’s a story about a young man who was getting ready to graduate from college.  For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car, and knowing his father could afford it, he told his dad on several occasions that it was all he wanted.  Finally, on the morning of his graduation, the young man’s father called him into his private study.  His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and how much he loved him.  He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. 

Curious, but disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold.  Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?”  And then stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible behind.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business.  He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was getting quite old and thought perhaps he should go to him.  He hadn’t seen his father since that graduation day.  But before he could make arrangements, the young man received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and that he needed to come home immediately to take care of things. 

When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.  He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.  With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages, when a car key dropped from the back of the Bible.  It had a tag with the dealer’s name, and on the tag was the date of his graduation along with the words, “Paid In Full.”