Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.

Where it comes from

That line is from G. Michael Hopf’s 2016 post-apocalyptic novel Those Who Remain, not from ancient sources.

What it compresses

Hopf wrote it after reading generational-cycle theories like The Fourth Turning, which argue that societies move in roughly 80-year cycles of stability, decay, and crisis. His line compresses that model into four steps: