Why do we say "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs"?

Meaning:

You can't accomplish something worthwhile without sacrifices

Background:

This expression traces back to Audi Alteram Partem: Letters of a Representative to His Constituents (1859) by Thomas Perronet Thompson. Audi alteram partem or audiatur et altera pars literally means "hear the other side".

T.P Thompson (1783 - 1869) was a British Parliamentarian and a radical reformer who, among other causes, supported universal suffrage. He was Govenor of Sierra Leone for two years but was removed from his post after complaining about the system by which "freed" slaves were compulsorily "apprenticed" for fourteen years on arrival in Sierra Leone. He believed that William Wilberforce (a leader in the campaign to abolish slavery) and the Sierra Leone Company had "by means of their agents become slave traders themselves".

More expressions and their source

Challenge yourself with BookBrowse Wordplays