“It's easier to build strong children then repair broken men.”
Variant: It is easier to build strong men, than to repair broken ones.
Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Frederick Douglass 274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895
Related quotes
“Unfortunately, it is easier to destroy a country than to re-build it.”
God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith (2015)

“One is never so strong as when one is broken.”
Source: Thinking Like The Universe: The Sufi Path Of Awakening

See also the Wikipedia article on the Lake Wobegon effect.
A Prairie Home Companion, News from Lake Wobegon

“Build a strong base. The journey to peaks of excellence requires a strong base camp.”
How I made it: CNR Rao, Scientist (2010)
Part 1, Chapter 7.7; about the death of Travis's landlord, Ted Hockney
Watchers (1987)

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”