Quotes about sweat

A collection of quotes on the topic of sweat, likeness, blood, doing.

Quotes about sweat

Erwin Rommel photo
Colin Powell photo

“A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting… Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at him he is just like an ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under his control.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: Carlos Castaneda (1971) Separate Reality: Conversations With Don Juan. p. 85; As cited in: Eugene Dupuis (2001) Time Shift: Managing Time to Create a Life You Love. Ch. 5: Self Management

Kid Cudi photo

“Blood sweat and tears homie I'm made of it”

Kid Cudi (1984) American rapper, singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor from Ohio

-Dat New New
Music

Joseph Goebbels photo
Karen Blixen photo

“I know of a cure for everything: salt water… in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea.”

Karen Blixen (1885–1962) Danish writer

As quoted in Reader's Digest (April 1964)
Variant: I know a cure for everything. Salt water … in one form or another, sweat, tears or the salt sea.
Variant: The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.

Karel Čapek photo
Alejandro Jodorowsky photo
W.B. Yeats photo
George Orwell photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

1950s, The Chance for Peace (1953)
Context: Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. … Is there no other way the world may live?

Karen Blixen photo
Jimmy Carter photo
Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo
Barack Obama photo
Jim Morrison photo
Oscar Wilde photo
George Carlin photo
Mark Twain photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Theodore Roosevelt photo

“Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on to triumph.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Speech before the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island (June 1897), reported in "Washington’s Forgotten Maxim", American Ideals (1926), vol. 13 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed., chapter 12, p. 198
1890s

William C. Roberts photo
Milkha Singh photo
Tertullian photo
Thomas Mann photo
George S. Patton photo

“A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Letter (3 March 1944), later published in War As I Knew It (1947) Similar expressions were also used in his famous "Speech to the Third Army" in June 1944. The phrase is similar to one attributed to Erwin Rommel, "Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains saves both", and to an even older one by August Willich: "A drop of sweat on the drill ground will save many drops of blood on the battlefield" from The Army: Standing Army or National Army? (1866)

Joseph Goebbels photo

“The money pigs of capitalist democracy… Money has made slaves of us… Money is the curse of mankind. It smothers the seed of everything great and good. Every penny is sticky with sweat and blood.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Quoted in The Nazi Party 1919-1945: A Complete History, Dietrich Orlow, New York: NY, Enigma Books, 2012, p 61. Goebbels’ article, “Nationalsozialisten aus Berlin und aus dem Reich”, Voelkischer Beobachter, February 4, 1927
1920s

James Brown photo

“When you kiss me,
And ya miss me.
You hold me tight,
Make everything all right.
I break out - in a cold sweat heh!”

James Brown (1933–2006) American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist

Cold Sweat, written with Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (1967)
Song lyrics

Miguel de Cervantes photo

“Which I have earned with the sweat of my brows.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 4.

Iggy Pop photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“In my opinion the religion that makes men rebel and fight against their government is not the genuine article, nor is the religion the right sort which reconciles them to the idea of eating their bread in the sweat of other men's faces. It is not the kind to get to heaven on.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

As quoted in Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 https://archive.org/details/recollectionsab00lamogoog (1895), by Ward Hill Lamon, p. 90
1860s

Mark Twain photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Lincoln was alluding to Jesus' words in in Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that ye be not judged." (KJV)
1860s, Second Inaugural Address (1865)
Context: Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, Citizenship in a Republic (1910)
Context: It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

George S. Patton photo

“I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Context: From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder we push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.

Sappho photo
Норман Шварцкопф photo

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. ”

Норман Шварцкопф (1895–1958) United States Army general and first superintendent of the New Jersey State Police
Ivo Andrič photo
Robert Anton Wilson photo
James Patterson photo
Rick Riordan photo
Jim Butcher photo
Stephen King photo

“It's a long walk back to Eden, sweetheart, so don't sweat the small stuff.”

Variant: It's a long way back to Eden, Sweetheart, so don't sweat the small stuff.
Source: Insomnia

Jack Kerouac photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“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

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Jonathan Safran Foer photo
Bette Davis photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Stephen King photo
Rick Riordan photo
Laura Ingalls Wilder photo

“There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Source: Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues

Flannery O’Connor photo

“It's easier to bleed than sweat, Mr. Motes.”

Source: Wise Blood

Kim Harrison photo
William Faulkner photo

“The young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Variant: the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat

Max Brooks photo

“Don't sweat the small stuff… and it's all small stuff.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... and it's all small stuff

Sarah Dessen photo
Assata Shakur photo

“i Believe In The Fire Of Love And The Sweat Of Truth”

Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army
Rachel Caine photo
Ernest Hemingway photo

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and can coast down them. … Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motorcar only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

[By-Line, Ernest Hemingway: Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades by Ernest Hemingway, White, William, 1967, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 364]
Source: By-Line: Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Laurell K. Hamilton photo
Bernhard Schlink photo
Gillian Flynn photo

“Reading goes faster if you don't sweat comprehension.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Wilford Woodruff photo
Rudyard Kipling photo
B.K.S. Iyengar photo

“Worship is not just something we feel, it is something we sweat.”

Donald Miller (1971) American writer

Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000, Harvest House Publishers)

Bon Scott photo

“It keeps you fit - the alcohol, nasty women, sweat on stage, bad food - it's all very good for you.”

Bon Scott (1946–1980) Rock musician

When asked about touring. From Circus, January 1979.

Robert W. Service photo
Glen Cook photo
Esther Williams photo
Henry Miller photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Peter Sloterdijk photo
Robert Oppenheimer photo
Bear Bryant photo

“There's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success.”

Bear Bryant (1913–1983) American college football coach

Source: Top Fifty Quotes From Bear Bryant, Drew, Roberts, Aug. 7, 2012, 2015-12-17 http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2012/bear-bryant-50-quotes/,

Mickey Spillane photo
Herbert Hoover photo

“[Engineering] is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer’s high privilege.

The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects, cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot, like the politicians, screen his shortcomings by blaming his opponents and hope that the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny that he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned. That is the phantasmagoria that haunts his nights and dogs his days. He comes from the job at the end of the day resolved to calculate it again. He wakes in the night in a cold sweat and puts something on paper that looks silly in the morning. All day he shivers at the thought of the bugs which will inevitably appear to jolt its smooth consummation.

On the other hand, unlike the doctor his is not a life among the weak. Unlike the soldier, destruction is not his purpose. Unlike the lawyer, quarrels are not his daily bread. To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope. No doubt as years go by people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician puts his name on it. Or they credit it to some promoter who used other people’s money with which to finance it. But the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness which flows from his successes with satisfactions that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolades he wants.”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

Excerpted from Chapter 11 "The Profession of Engineering"
The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: Years of Adventure, 1874-1929 (1951)

Greil Marcus photo
Sun Myung Moon photo
Kathy Griffin photo

“I actually share one thing with Whitney Houston, which is, I also have sweating issues.”

Kathy Griffin (1960) American actress and comedian

The D-list (2004)