As for the bitter herbs…. To see everyone with tears coursing down their faces, laughing and gasping at the same time, is fun and also makes the point — bitter herbs must be really bitter to experience the suffering… – Julia Neuberger, On Being Jewish, 1995

Each Jew must either give or take tzedakah [charity] for Passover. – Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916), A Pesachdike Expropriacie, 1908

Bitter is wine, but it sweetens all bitterness. – Moses Ibn Ezra

Jews who long have drifted from the faith of their fathers… are stirred in their inmost parts when the old, familiar Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears. – Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), Der Rabbi Von Bacharach