What does "take the bitter with the sweet" mean?
Accept adversity as well as good fortune, as in
Although he got the job, he hadn't counted on having to work with Matthew; he'll just have to take the bitter with the sweet. This idiom uses
bitter for “bad” and
sweet for “good,” a usage dating from the late 1300s. It was first recorded in John Heywood's 1546 proverb collection. For a synonym, see
take the rough with the smooth.
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