"...bitter as salt and stone...."

All that you held most dear you will put by
and leave behind you: and this is the arrow
the longbow of your exile first lets fly.

You will come to know how bitter as salt and stone
is the bread of others, how hard the way that goes
up and down stairs that never are your own.

Paradiso -Dante

Damn.  That dude can write.

Source: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/04/04/the-big-idea-guy-gavriel-kay-2/