Put a stout heart to a stey brae

A Scottish proverb also used as a metaphorical phrase. A stey brae is a ‘steep slope’.

So gets ay, that sets ay, Stout stomackis to the brae.
[a 1585 A. Montgomerie Cherry & Sloe (1821) xxxvi.]

Set a stout Heart to a stay Brea. Set about a difficult Business with Courage and Constancy.
[1721 J. Kelly Scottish Proverbs 287]

I began a round of visitations; but oh, it was a steep brae that I had to climb, and it needed a stout heart. For I found the doors‥barred against me.
[1821 J. Galt Annals of Parish i.]

He‥shouted to me‥to ‘pit a stoot hert tae a stey brae’.
[1916 J. Buchan Greenmantle xii.]

Like the walls of Jericho, their resistance will eventually crumble if you peg away long enough. A stout heart to a stey brae, as my Inverness grandmother used to say.
[1937 S. Scott Crazy Murder Show v.]

Related to: boldness; perservance

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.