Lemons Quotes

“When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.”
― Cathy Guiswite

“When life gives you lemons, chunk it right back.”
― Bill Watterson

“I believe when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade...and try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.”
― Ron White

“and then I decided I was a lemon for a couple of weeks.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“Plants are more courageous than almost all human beings: an orange tree would rather die than produce lemons, whereas instead of dying the average person would rather be someone they are not.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“As you go about your daily life, you will encounter many lemons. Sour expressions, sour attitudes, sour auras! The good thing is that if you don't want to be a lemon, you don't have to be! Just don't let those lemons rub themselves all over you! And you don't even have to save them! Let lemons be lemons! One of the most important things that I have ever learned, is that I don't have to save people.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“When life gives you lemons. . . You might as well shove 'em where the sun don't shine, because you sure as hell aren't ever going to see any lemonade.”
― Rob Thurman, Nightlife

“when life gives you lemon, take it. don't waste food”
― giselle marquez

“When life hands you lemonade, don't try to make lemons”
― Vince Guthrie

“The man who'd put the sword to her neck was uncomfortably buff. He had upsetting biceps. He didn't look healthy; he looked like a collection of lemons in a sack.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

“That evening after dinner, I picked lemons from the tree in the backyard, the fruits golden bulbs under the rising moon.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir

“Life isn’t just about getting lemons out of it. An unexpected turn and a kind smile warms you up on the coldest of days.”
― Sijdah Hussain, Red Sugar, No More

“Life handed me lemons, so I made lemonade, lemon cake, lemon drops, and I even used the rinds to make lemon art. So, the joke is on you, life, haha!”
― Emilyann Allen (pseudonyms Emilyann Phoenix and Emilyann Girdner)

“Bright yellow lemons twinkled in the twilight sun on a terrace tree, and far beyond my window, San Francisco lay, flat like a pastel toy.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir

“Better keep the young on lemons and lavender until they've reached the age of discretion.”
― Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

“She breathed in the scent of lemon blossoms, inspired by how their citrus sweetness mingled with fresh ocean air. Closing her eyes, she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, tasting a faint saltiness in the moisture laden breeze. She imagined how dark, rich chocolate filled with the brightness of a lemon filling and dusted with chunky sea salt might taste. Delicious, she decided.”
― Jan Moran, The Chocolatier

“After that, we don't talk much until she brings out a ginger cake from the larder.
"An old family recipe," she says. "I've been experimenting with the quantities of cloves and Jamaica ginger. Tell me what you think." And she pushes a slice toward me. I try not to gobble for it, for I am starving.
"The most important thing with this cake is to beat in every ingredient, one by one, with the back of a wooden spoon," she says. "Simply throwing everything in together and then beating produces a most unsuccessful cake. I know because my first attempt was as heavy as a brick---quite indigestible!" She gives a rueful smile and asks if I think it needs more ginger.
I feel the crumb, dense and dark, melt on my tongue. My mouth floods with warmth and spice and sweetness. As I swallow, something sharp and clean seems to lift through my nose and throat until my head swims.
"I can see you like it." Miss Eliza watches me and smiles.
And then I blurt something out. Something I know Reverend Thorpe and his wife would not like. But it's too late, the words jump from my throat of their own accord. "I can taste an African heaven, a forest full of dark earth and heat."
The smile on Miss Eliza's face stretches a little wider and her eyes grow brighter. And this gives me the courage to ask a question that's nothing to do with my work. "What is the flavor that cuts through it so keenly, so that it sings a high note on my tongue?"
She stares at me with her forget-me-not eyes. "It's the lightly grated rinds of two fresh lemons!”
― Annabel Abbs, Miss Eliza's English Kitchen

“I have passed through some jobs that were real lemons.”
― Steven Magee

“When life gives you lemon, don’t just make lemonade…make lemon meringue pie…make lemon tart…make lemon chiffon cake…make lemon liqueur…make lemon vinaigrette…make lemon pickle…Then set up shop and make your millions.”
― Mallika Nawal

“Lemons." He smiled. "Is this why you always smell like lemons?"
"I-I suppose." She sat on a blue-striped bench at the foot of her bed. "It's a concoction my mother and I made. It keeps freckles at bay. I didn't know you noticed how I smelled."
He turned, his steady gaze on her. "I wager there are a lot of things you didn't know I noticed about you.”
― Olivia Parker, To Wed a Wicked Earl

“I am aware of two of ‘America’s Greatest Achievements’ that were lemons.”
― Steven Magee

“Among connoisseurs of chocolate, Cioccolata Savoia was famous. From Torino to Amalfi, experts lauded the family's legendary chocolatiers for fusing the smooth, delicate flavor of Criollo chocolate with Sorrentino and Amalfitano lemons.”
― Jan Moran, The Chocolatier

“Several weeks before he left Peking, Meyer visited a small village and noticed, in a house's doorway, a small bush with fruit as yellow as a fresh egg yolk. Meyer ignored a man who told him the plant was ornamental, its fruit not typically eaten but prized for its year-round production. The fruit looked like a mix between a mandarin and a citron (which later genetic testing would confirm). It was a lemon, but smaller and rounder---its flavor surprised him as both sweeter than a citron and tarter than an orange. And its price, twenty cents per fruit or ten dollars per tree, suggested that people with an abundance of other citrus valued it greatly.
Meyer had little room in his baggage, but he used his double-edged bowie knife to take a cutting where the branches formed a V, the choice spot to secure its genetic material.
That cutting made the voyage to Washington, and then the trip to an experiment station in Chico, California, where it propped up a new lemon industry grateful to receive a sweeter variety. The lemon became known as the Meyer lemon, and from it came lemon tarts, lemon pies, and millions of glasses of lemonade.”
― Daniel Stone, The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats

“Mom's secret recipe used Meyer lemons for a sweeter, richer flavor. That was one of her tricks. That and European butter. With its higher fat content than American butter, it made a flakier crust.
"Lolly, what are the three secret ingredients that make this the best lemon meringue pie in the world?" She'd drilled me that last night before she died, demanding I recite every ingredient, every step, until she was satisfied I had it down pat.
"The three ingredients are Meyer lemons, European butter, and a leaf of lemon balm boiled into the syrup every time," I'd dutifully recited in her hospital room, feeling the weight of grief, of responsibility rest heavier on my shoulders with every word.
Lemon balm was an unorthodox choice for pie, but Mom had loved cooking with edible flowers and herbs. She'd taught me everything I knew about them. I reached for the little lemon balm potted plant growing on the windowsill over the sink and carefully pinched off a leaf.
"In the language of flowers, lemon balm means sympathy or good cheer," she'd explained once. "So every bite of this pie can help brighten someone's day."
I crushed the leaf of lemon balm between my fingers and inhaled the scent, hoping it would work on me. No such luck. I dropped the leaf into the pot and stirred. Every time I made these pies I felt her presence. She had loved lemons---their sharp, fresh scent and cheerful hue. She would slice a lemon in half and sniff deeply, happily.
"See, Lolly," she'd say. "Lemons brighten every day. They are a touch of kitchen magic, and we all need a little magic in our lives.”
― Rachel Linden, The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie

“She always told me that lemons clarify things; they symbolize happiness and hope. But when she died, I stopped believing lemons were anything more than a chore, something sour to squeeze every morning for pie. How ironic that it's a lemon drop that's changing everything for me.”
― Rachel Linden, The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie

“I wouldn't work in a hospital again! They do not tell you about the high disease risks when they hire you. It is well known that hospital jobs are lemons today with the pandemic. One of my coworkers was suffering with chronic fatigue from her thirties onward. She has never been healthy since working there. She probably had an infection from a sickly patient and never recovered.”
― Steven Magee

“Okay, next step is making the syrup...
...with this!"
He even has the limoncello!
Limoncello!
That's an Italian lemon-flavored liqueur. Sponge cakes, especially Genoise, are often brushed with syrup, but the standard flavors are usually almond or rum!
That he happened to pick limoncello too!
"Trattoria Aldini has a specialty that uses this, doesn't it?
Your Limoncello Panna Cotta.
I hear it's so popular that customers come in droves when it's in season in February. I figured you'd likely use it in your semifreddo.”
― Yūto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 10 [Shokugeki no Souma 10]

“ The citrusy tang of lemon floods the mouth!
At the same time, the rich aroma of almond tickles the nose!
Both flavors are seamlessly brought together with no bitterness or clashing at all!
It's sweet and mild and fragrant! I can feel it awakening the heart of a maiden within me!
"I chose a Biscuit Joconde for the sponge cake because it matched so well with the almond pralines. It gives even the cake layer the aroma of almonds, without disturbing the flavor balance in the least.”
― Yūto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 10 [Shokugeki no Souma 10]

“The lemons I used were pickled in salt for over two weeks!"
"I knew it! You used preserved lemons!"
A North African condiment, salted lemons are made by pickling whole lemons in salty brine for weeks or months. Because the entire lemon, including the peel, is pickled parts of it can be used to emphasize just about any flavor...
... be it tartness, saltiness, bitterness, freshness or mellowness!
"I added the zest and pickling brine in my sponge cake, pralines and even the sauce! Its mild tartness should make the sweetness of the semifreddo stand out even more!”
― Yūto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 10 [Shokugeki no Souma 10]

“Somebody once asked me…what I most loved about living in Spain. I pondered for a bit, considering the culture, the people, the sunshine, the architecture, the music, the cities, the landscape …But I eventually came to the conclusion that the one thing I really could not do without was having my own orange trees. Apart from the beauty of those gorgeous oranges shining from amongst the deep, dark foliage, there’s the delight of idly picking one as you pass a tree, and meditatively peeling and eating it segment by segment. [from Last Days of the Bus Club, book 4 in the Driving Over Lemons Trilogy]”
― Chris Stewart