“Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" by Geoffrey Chaucer?
Geoffrey Chaucer photo
Geoffrey Chaucer 99
English poet 1343–1400

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“3678. Nothing venture, nothing have.”

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“Nothing venture, nothing gain.
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.”

Wer nichts wagt, gerwinnt nichts.
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß,
Wer nie die kummervollen Nächte
Auf seinem Bette weinend saß,
Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Mächte.
Bk. II, Ch. 13; translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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“Nothing risqué nothing gained!”

Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967) American actress, singer, model

Source: On Being Blonde (2004), p. 78

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“When I'm drinking my Bonaparte shandy
eating more than enough apple pies
will I glance at my screen
and see real human beings
starve to death right in front of my eyes?
Nothing old, nothing new, nothing ventured,
nothing gained, nothing stillborn or lost,
nothing further than proof, nothing wilder than youth,
nothing older than time, nothing sweeter than wine,
nothing physically recklessly hopelessly blind,
nothing I couldn't say
Nothing. Why? 'Cos today nothing rhymed”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Nothing Rhymed" (song)
Gilbert O'Sullivan. A live performance. On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtoefxZGR6U
Gilbert O'Sullivan. A performance with orchestra, c.2017. On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-SWTPDPriA
Gilbert O'Sullivan. Observations about "Nothing Rhymed", fifty years on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BlxtcH39Q (On YouTube)
(+ A cover version by Franklin Brown on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6kuZyk5WJ8
(+ A cover version by Colleen Coughlan on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcqndbjOPTs
(+ A cover version by Conor McCauley on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nAb0-7J9d4
(+ A cover version by The Ocelots on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRCDFiRaRA0
(+ Guitar instrumental by Phil McGarrick) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmzFaUC1rDI
Song lyrics
Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Nothing Rhymed" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGE6gzkMAfw (song on YouTube)

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“If you risk nothing you gain nothing”

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“For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than agriculture.”
Omnium autem rerum, ex quibus aliquid adquiritur, nihil est agri cultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius.

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Book I, section 42. Translation by Cyrus R. Edmonds (1873), p. 73
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)

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“Imagination must be drawn upon, risks must be assumed. "Nothing venture, nothing have" is perhaps truer of the department store than of any other enterprise.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman

The Romance of Commerce (1918), A Representative Business of the Twentieth Century

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