Blood, sweat, and tears
Meaning: Great achievement requires immense effort and sacrifice.
Origin: Winston Churchill's first speech as prime minister, on May 13, 1940, told the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" — four words, which popular memory has trimmed to three. The combination was older: Theodore Roosevelt spoke of "blood and sweat and tears" in an 1897 address to the Naval War College.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Du sang, de la sueur et des larmes (literally: Blood, sweat, and tears)
- Spanish: Sangre, sudor y lágrimas (literally: Blood, sweat, and tears)
- Japanese: 血と汗と涙 (Chi to ase to namida) (literally: Blood and sweat and tears)
- German: Blut, Schweiß und Tränen (literally: Blood, sweat and tears)
More proverbs about Perseverance
- The first step is the hardest — Starting something new requires the most courage.
- Patience is a virtue — The ability to wait calmly is a valuable quality.
- A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor — Hardship and challenges are what build true expertise and resilience.
- Dripping water hollows out stone — Persistent small efforts accomplish what force alone cannot.
- The ox is slow, but the earth is patient — Steady, unhurried work in harmony with natural rhythms eventually yields abundance.
- The cat that always cries catches no mice — Complaining and making noise accomplishes nothing; quiet, focused effort gets results.
From our tongue twisters
- خالد خلّى خلال خاله في الخلاء. (Khālid khallā khalāl khālih fī al-khalāʾ.) — A rapid-fire 'kh' (خ) drill — the throaty fricative that non-Arabic speakers find uniquel…
- غاب الغيم وغابت غابة الغاب. (Ghāb al-ghaym wa ghābat ghābat al-ghāb.) — An unbroken sequence of 'gh' (غ) — a voiced uvular fricative that drills the back of the…
- Khadak Singh ke khadakne se khadakti hain khidkiyan, khidkiyon ke khadakne se khadakte hain Khadak Singh. — A 'kh/kh/kh' recursive loop — each clause triggers the other, like a rattling chain react…