# What does ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ mean?

To “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” means to adversity brings out the strongest. A 20th-century saying often attributed to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.; not in Brewer's 1898.

## What it means

- A 20th-century saying often attributed to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.; not in Brewer's 1898.

## Action steps

1. Common motivational exhortation.
2. Example: Layoffs are hard — but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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Published: 2026-07-18T04:16:36.681008+00:00
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