for a pint of honey thou shalt here likely find a gallon of gall

for a dram of pleasure a pound of pain, for an inch of mirth an ell of moan; as ivy doth an oak, these miseries encompass our life, and 'tis the most absurd and ridiculous for any mortal man to look for a perpetual tenor of happiness in his life.

Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (Pt 1, Sec 1, Mem 1, Subs 5)