no pain, no gain

1. Suffering is needed to make progress, as in I've worked for hours on those irregular French verbs, but no pain, no gain. Although this idiom is often associated with athletic coaches who urge athletes to train harder, it dates from the 1500s and was already in John Ray's proverb collection of 1670 as “Without pains, no gains.”

Example Sentences

“The Biggest Loser” placed the dominant “no pain, no gain” philosophy in a glaring light by endorsing mistreatment as a form of motivation.

From Salon

I've even seen one young woman proudly stating, "No pain no gain".

From BBC

This past week Trump’s army of talking heads and Twitter commandos has pushed his “no pain, no gain” theory like it was the Sermon on the Mount, all while insisting this was the economic tough love America needed.

From Los Angeles Times

"No pain, no gain — that’s what we used to tell our football players," Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said, falsely equating exercise, which promotes muscle growth, with sales taxes, which suppress consumer spending and shrink the economy.

From Salon

No pain, no gain seems to be the part of Clarke's grand plan, though.

From BBC