“You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left.”

Source: The Rose That Grew from Concrete

Last update June 26, 2025. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left." by Tupac Shakur?
Tupac Shakur photo
Tupac Shakur 154
rapper and actor 1971–1996

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Bob Marley quote: “You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.”
Bob Marley photo

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Variant: You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice...

Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“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

Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“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
Giuseppe Mazzini photo

“Hope nothing from foreign governments. They will never be really willing to aid you until you have shown that you are strong enough to conquer without them.”

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

“He knew you can't really be strong until you can see a funny side of things.”

Variant: You can't really be strong until you can see a funny side to things.
Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Nancy Pelosi photo

“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

James Baldwin photo

“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)

Elizabeth Gilbert photo

“You have no idea how strong my love is!”

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

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