“When life gives you lemons, use them to make lemonade” is a well-recognized -- and overused -- encouragement to take life's challenges (sour), face them, and turn them into something positive (sweet).
What happens when you ask a bunch of creative folks to rewrite the ending to "When life gives you lemons..."
When life gives you lemons eat them whole. Seriously, just
choke them all down, skin, pulp, seeds, and all and don’t break eye contact.
Maybe life will stop being such an asshole if you show it that you're done
fucking around.
When life gives you lemons, put them in your bra! It won’t
solve your problems, but the extra attention is nice.
When life gives you lemons, make them the “lemonades of
experience” and sell them in “glasses of inspiration”.
When life hands you lemons use the opportunity to add some
zest to your life.
When life gives you lemons put them under your mattress and
pretend that they are peas and you are the princess.
Unless life gives you water and sugar, that's going to be some crappy lemonade.
When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. But when life
hands you hurricanes, you go surfing.
When life gives you lemons, sell them on eBay.
Well, when life gives me lemons, I sit in front of a Burger
King and throw them at pedestrians.
When life gives you lemons, gift wrap them and give them to someone else.
Life has never given me lemons, it has given me anger
issues, anxiety, a love for alcohol, a serious dislike for stupid people. But
not lemons.
Other folks -- including Wanda Sykes, Bill Watterson, and James Patterson -- have also squeezed more out of the "If life gives you lemons" philosophy:
“When life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade and
then try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.” –
Ron White
“When life gives you lemons don’t make lemonade, make
pink lemonade. Be unique.” – Wanda Sykes
“When life gives you lemons, you tell life to get a life
because lemons are a terrible gift.” – Patrick Schell
“When life gives you lemons, plant its seeds, grow yourself
an orchard, sell it to Sunkist. Carry on.” – José N. Harris
“When life hands you lemonade, don’t try to make lemons.” –
Vince Guthrie
“When life gives you lemons, forget the lemonade. Make a
lemon chicken and a rich lemon cheesecake. Blame life for the extra pounds.” –
Susie Smith
“When life gives you lemons, chunk it right back.” – Bill
Watterson
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and sell it to
all of those who get thirsty from complaining." – Napoleon Hill
“When life gives you lemons, take it. Don’t waste food.” –
Giselle Marquez
"Fuck the lemons and bail." – Paul Rudd
"When fate gives us lemons, we should try to make lemonade,
not apple juice." – Robert B. Cialdini.
"If life gives you lemons, start a podcast on lemon
manifesting." – Steve Raju
“When life gives you lemons, order the lobster tail.” – Ziad
K. Abdelnour
“When life gives you lemons, make sure you know whose eyes
you need to squeeze them in.” – Colleen Hoover
"When life give you lemons, suck all of them dry. Sour experiences can end in sweet victories! Spit out the seeds though." – Kendon Preddie
“When life gives you lemons, keep them, cause hey – free
lemons!” – Jake Hamilton
“When life gives you lemons, exchange them at the store for
something more edible.” – Grace Helbig
“When life gives you lemons, sell them and buy a pineapple.” – Davin Turney
“When life gives you lemons, freeze them and use them to
throw at your enemies using some sort of trebuchet.” – Jenny Lawson
"I'm a realist. I say, when life gives you lemons...
you probably just *found* lemons." – Bo Burnham
“When life gives you lemons, learn to juggle.” – James
Patterson
“When life gives you lemons, go to a taco stand.” – Mariana
Zapata
“When life gives you lemons, make orange juice and leave the
world wondering how you did it.” – Mitch Griego
When life gives you lemons, absorb the vitamin C. – Alakananda
Biswas
When life gives you lemons, get rid of that grimace and use
that pucker for a kiss! – Fiola Faelan
When life gives you lemons, throw them at the zombies. – Bruce
Campbell
When life gives you lemons, make a lemon detox, and stay
away from toxic people. – Aman Mandaiya
“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade! Make life
take the lemons back… What am I supposed to do with these? I demand to see
life’s manager…” – J. K. Simmons
“As far as I’m concerned, there are two types of people in
this world: people like Queeg who when life gives them lemons make lemonade,
and everyone else. And although those smug lemonade-makers think the rest of us
just sit around all day bitching about not getting oranges, they’re wrong. It’s
all about volume. When you’re ass-deep in lemons, you start looking for a
shovel, not a pitcher, and a cup of sugar.” ― Melissa DeCarlo
“When life gives you lemons say, 'Cool, what else you got?'” – Carmen in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
“When life hands me lemons I hand them back and pick
something else.” – Behdad Sami
"When life gives you lemons, write about 'em!"
– Kimmie
Easley
Origin Story
The guy attributed with originating the famous lemons/lemonade phrase of facing adversity with optimism was Elbert Hubbard. In
a 1915 obituary he wrote and published for actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder:
"He picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and
started a lemonade-stand.”
It is often attributed to Dale
Carnegie who used it in his book “How to Stop Worrying and Start
Living”:
"If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade.”
Carnegie credited Julius Rosenwald for giving him
the phrase.
That's the origin of the adage, the origin (inspiration) for this blog entry was from a George Tannenbaum social media post: "When life hands you lemons, teach someone to fish for a day."
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Update
When life gives you lemons, get up, go to the kitchen, put a
teabag in a mug, boil the kettle, pour the water in the mug, add milk, bring
the tea back to your desk, sit down, take a deep breath and DO NOT SPILL YOUR
TEA ALL OVER YOUR LAPTOP LIKE I JUST DID.
Another Update
I published a few of these on social media and this appeared in the comments:
