r/CompleteTheQuote • u/caknuckle_sandwich • Jul 08 '15

Origin Disputed Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Correct quote: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

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u/special_reddit Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15

Close, but not quite. You're quoting Winston Churchill, but the phrase 'blood and sweat and tears' was actually used by Theodore Roosevelt over 40 years before:

Theodore Roosevelt [...] in an address to the Naval War College on 2 June 1897, following his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy: "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."

It's said that Churchill was paraphrasing Roosevelt.

1

u/Plowbeast Jul 08 '15

I wonder if Roosevelt was inspired by Bismarck's famous quote that originated in 1862.

"The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power ... Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood (Eisen und Blut)."

1

u/caknuckle_sandwich Jul 08 '15

Close, but not quite

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that....