No painöno gain.

-Anonymous
Bodybuilding motto. The catchphrase may have had its origins in  Adlai Stevenson's slogan'There are no gains without pain', first voiced when accepting the Democratic nomination in1952.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Philippians 3:7.

For I say, this is death and the sole death, When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest.

-Browning, Robert
  Dramatis Personae,'A Death in the Desert'.

This is no war for domination or imperial aggrandisement or material gain† It is a war†to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of the individual and it is a war to establish and revive the stature of man.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer
  Speech in the House of Commons, 3 Sep, on the declaration of war against Germany by Britain and France.

   The poet reminds men of their uniqueness and it is not necessary to possess the ultimate definition of this uniqueness. Even to speculate is a gain.

-Cousins, Norman
  In the Saturday Review,15  Apr.

Our farmers round, well pleased with constant gain, Like other farmers, flourish and complain.

-Crabbe, George
  Poems,'The Parish Register', pt.1, l.273^4.

En perseguirme, Mundo, Que¤   interesas? En que¤   te ofendo, cuando so¤  lo intento poner bellezas en mi entendimiento y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas? World, in hounding me, what do you gain? How can it harm you if I choose, astutely, rather to stock my mind with things of beauty, than waste its stock on every beauty's claim?

-Cruz, SorJuana Ine¤  s de la
  Poes|¤  a, teatro y prosa,'Que¤  jase de la suerte' (translated as 'She Complains about Her Fate',1985).

Ill is the weather that bringeth no gain.

-Dekker,Thomas
  The Shoemaker's Holiday,'The First Three-men's Song'.

As to marriage on the part of a man, my dear, Society requires that heshould retrieve his fortunes by marriage. Society requires that he should gain by marriage. Society requires that he should found a handsome establishment by marriage. Society does not see, otherwise, what he has to do with marriage. Bleak House

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^7  Mrs Merdle. Little Dorrit, bk.1, ch.33.

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'East Coker', pt.5.

The point of equilibrium will be known by the criterion that an infinitely small amount of commodity exchanged in addition, at the same rate, will bring neither gain nor loss of utility.

-Jevons,William Stanley
The Theory of Political Economy.

Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause which he cannot keep.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
^2  In The Rambler.

Pesons le gain et la perte, en prenant croix que Dieu est. Estimons ces deux cas: si vous gagnez, vous gagnez tout; si vous perdez, vous ne perdez rien.Gagezdonc qu'il est, sans he¤  siter. Let us weigh up the gain and loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us assess thetwo cases: if you winyou win everything, if you lose you lose nothing.Do not hesitate then; wager that he does exist.

-Pascal, Blaise
c.1654^1662  Pense¤  es, no.233 (translated byA Krailsheimer).

Every individual†intends only his own gain, and he is in this as in many other cases led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention† By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the publick good.

-Smith, Adam
  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.3.

Hope has often caused the love of gain to ruin men.

-Sophocles
Antigone, 222 (translated by H Lloyd-Jones,1994).

   When I survey the wondrous cross On which the prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

-Watts, Isaac
  Hymns and Spiritual Songs,'Crucifixion to theWorld, by the Cross of Christ'.

The impulse to acquisition, pursuit of gain, of money, of the greatest possible amount of money, has in itself nothing to dowith capitalism.Thisimpulse exists among waiters, physicians, coachmen, artists, prostitutes, dishonest officials, soldiers, nobles, crusaders, gamblers, and beggars.One may say that it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth, wherever the objective possibility of it is or has been given.

-Weber, Max
^5  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (translated byTalcott Parsons,1930).