“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Source: The Second World War: Alone
“Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears,—
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain!
Take them, and give me my childhood again!”
Rock me to sleep, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
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I am so weary of toil and of tears,—
Toil without recompense, tears all…" by Elizabeth Chase Allen?
Elizabeth Chase Allen3
American author, journalist, poet 1832–1911Related quotes
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
(21st August 1830) The Legacy of the Roses
The London Literary Gazette, 1830
“Shed no tear! O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.”
John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet
"Faery Songs", I (1818)
Context: Shed no tear! O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! O weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root's white core.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
1960s, Inaugural address (1965)
Context: In each generation, with toil and tears, we have had to earn our heritage again. If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship: that democracy rests on faith, that freedom asks more than it gives, and that the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most favored. If we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are; not because of what we own, but, rather because of what we believe. For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday be free. And we believe in ourselves.
Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940) This has often been misquoted in the form: "I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears ..."
The Official Report, House of Commons (5th Series), 13 May 1940, vol. 360, c. 1502. Audio records of the speech do spare out the "It is" before the in the beginning of the "Victory"-Part.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Imru' al-Qais (501–544) Arabic Poet
The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Vol. 5, p. 20
Poetry, Couplets
Source: https://archive.org/details/sacredbooksearly05hornuoft/page/18/mode/2up
Stephen King book The Green Mile
The Green Mile (1996)
Context: "He kill them with they love", John said. "They love for each other. You see how it was?" I nodded, incapable of speech.
He smiled. The tears were flowing again, but he smiled. "That's how it is every day", he said, "all over the world."
Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer
Source: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake