“You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left.”
Tupac Shakur book The Rose That Grew from Concrete
Source: The Rose That Grew from Concrete
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.”
Variant: You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice...
Last update Jan. 10, 2026. History
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Bob Marley118
Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945–1981
Related quotes
“Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Another quote often attributed to her without an original source in her writings, as in The Wit and Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt (1996), p. 199. But once again archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
A very similar remark was attributed to Nancy Reagan, in The Observer (29 March 1981): "A woman is like a teabag — only in hot water do you realize how strong she is."
Variants:
A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.
A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
A woman is like a tea bag; you can't tell how strong she is and how much to trust her until you put her in hot water.
Disputed
“You don't know how strong something is until you actually test it.”
Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride
Source: The Longest Ride
“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. ”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“A woman is like a teabag. You can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
Nancy Pelosi (1940) American politician, first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, born 1940
Interview with ABC News, as quoted by Hilary Clinton.
2000s
“It’s not about how strong you were back then, it is about how strong you are right here right now.”
Lauren Manning (1961) American banker
Unmeasured Strength (2011)
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872) Italian patriot, politician and philosopher
Life and Writings, Young Italy; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 333
Rezā Shāh (1878–1944) Shah of the Imperial State of Iran
Ashraf Pahlavi (1980), "Faces in a mirror: Memoirs from Exile", Prentice-Hall
Reza Shah to his daughter Ashraf, during his exile
“Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.”
Knute Rockne (1888–1931) American college football player and college football coach (1888-1931)
As quoted in Knute Rockne: Man Builder (1940) by Harry Augustus Stuhldreher, p. 53