blood, sweat, and tears

Hard work; enormous effort. The phrase is associated with one of the twentieth century’s finest speakers, Winston Churchill, who on becoming Britain’s prime minister in 1940 said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat and tears” (today the “toil” is often dropped when quoting him). The phrase was not original with Churchill. In 1611 John Donne wrote (First Anniversary), “. . . ’tis in vaine to dew, or mol- lifie it [this world] with thy teares, or sweat, or blood.” Among others who used similar phrases were Byron, Browning, and Gladstone.