Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
no guts, no glory

no guts, no glory

4 7.7
You must be brave and take risks to succeed
  • idiom
  • Informal
: sin arriesgar, no hay gloria
  • No guts, no glory, no votes.

Examples

  • If we want to win the championship, we need to remember that no guts, no glory.

  • In her speech, she emphasized that no guts, no glory is what drives successful entrepreneurs.

  • He took the leap of faith, believing that no guts, no glory would lead to his dreams.

Synonyms

no pain, no gain
vsno guts, no glory
  • Informal
6 4.2

To work hard or accept some pain to reach a worthwhile goal

focuses on risk or courage rather than effort or hardship
do-or-die
vsno guts, no glory
  • Informal
5 7.2

Willing to do anything to succeed when the situation is urgent

is about taking risks or showing courage for success without desperation

Surface Forms

no guts, no glory main

Morphology

no + guts, + no + glory

The structure 'no X, no Y' (without X you cannot have Y) is reasonably transparent, but the key word 'guts' relies on an informal/metaphorical sense of 'courage' rather than the literal 'internal organs.' A B1 learner who only knows the literal senses would likely not derive the intended meaning without exposure to the slang/metaphorical use, so the expression is only partially predictable despite cross‑linguistic parallels like 'no risk, no reward.'

Etymology

No guts, no glory may come from old battle or sports talk: if someone had no guts, meaning 'courage', they could not win glory, meaning 'honor'. So it means you must take a 'risk' and be brave to get 'success'.