ProverbChallenge
English origin1648
English origin1648No pain, no gain
Meaning: You must work hard to achieve results.
Example: “Training every morning is tough, but no pain, no gain.”
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Russian, and 3 more languages
French: On n'a rien sans rien (literally: You get nothing without nothing)
Spanish: El que algo quiere, algo le cuesta (literally: Whoever wants something must pay something for it)
Japanese: 苦あれば楽あり (Ku areba raku ari) (literally: If there is suffering, there is ease)
German: Ohne Fleiß kein Preis (literally: Without diligence, no prize)
Russian: Без труда не вынешь и рыбку из пруда (Bez truda ne vynesh' i rybku iz pruda) (literally: Without effort you can't even pull a fish from the pond)
Polish: Bez pracy nie ma kołaczy (literally: No work, no cakes)
Arabic: من جد وجد (Man jadda wajada) (literally: Whoever strives, finds)
Turkish: Emek olmadan yemek olmaz (literally: Without toil there's no food)
Origin: The idea is old: the rabbinic Ethics of the Fathers teaches that the reward is in proportion to the effort, and Robert Herrick's Hesperides (1648) has a two-line poem titled "No Paines, no Gaines." The clipped modern slogan became famous through Jane Fonda's workout videos of the 1980s.
Explore another collection: Idioms
Colorful expressions from dozens of languages, with their word-for-word translations.
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter To have more important things to do.
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