No guts, no glory is an idiom that can be traced directly to its source. We will examine the meaning of the common saying no guts, no glory, where it came from, and some examples of its idiomatic usage in sentences.
No guts, no glory means that success is not possible unless one takes risks. In this case, the word guts means gumption, courage, or bravery. The word glory, in this case, means success or accolades. The expression no guts, no glory can be traced to one man: American Air Force Major General Frederick Corbin Blesse, who wrote a manual about air-to-air combat in 1955 that he entitled, No Guts, No Glory. The manual is still considered a primer on air combat.
Examples
No guts, no glory – that’s my genesis. (The Guardian)
“No guts, no glory,” Gettleman likes to say when explaining the potential for making this kind of trade. (Newsday)
No guts, no glory: Forest Lake girl earns national valor award from JROTC (Forest Lake Lowdown)
No guts, no glory: It took years of training and scaling a tonne of challenges (Conde Nast Traveller)