WIST Quotations

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1745 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 15:34:59 +0000

No gains without pains.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
(Source)

Franklin recapped this in his final Poor Richard Improved (1758 ed.): "There are no Gains, without Pains." This was in turn reprinted in abridged Way to Wealth (1773).

Sometimes erroneously cited to Poor Richard (1734 ed.); that has something different in structure and meaning: "Hope of gain / Lessens pain."

See also Breton (1577) and Herrick (1648).

Herrick, Robert -- Poem (1648), “No Pains, No Gains,” Hesperides, # 752

Dave — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 18:00:12 +0000

If little labour, little are our gains;
Man’s fortunes are according to his pains.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
Poem (1648), “No Pains, No Gains,” Hesperides, # 752
(Source)

See Breton (1577)

Breton, Nicholas -- Workes of a Young Wyt (1577)

Dave — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:34:39 +0000

SUSAN: The world is hard, they must take pain that look for any gayn.

Nicholas Breton (c. 1545/53 - c. 1625/26) English Renaissance poet and prose writer [Britton; Brittaine]
Workes of a Young Wyt (1577)
(Source)

First record of something resembling "No pain, no gain" in English.

Herbert, George -- Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 499 (1640 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:44:30 +0000

For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 499 (1640 ed.)
(Source)