A favourite family saying of Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969), US politician, businessman, and father of President John F. Kennedy.

Joe [Kennedy] made his children stay on their toes. ‥He would bear down on them and tell them, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’
[1962 J. H. Cutler ‘Honey Fitz’ xx.]

Baron Marcel Bich, the millionaire French pen magnate probably spoke for them all last month when he said, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going!’ (‘Quand le chemin devient dur, les durs se cheminent!’)
[1970 New Yorker 3 Oct. 33]

‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going?’ she asked slyly. ‘Make fun if you want to, but that's what character is all about.’
[1979 J. Crumley Last Good Kiss xvi.]

‘I realize we're lost. ‥But always remember—“When the going gets tough, the tough get going”!’ ‘I know. But which way do we go?’
[2001 Washington Post 26 July C13 (Hagar the Horrible comic strip)]

Related to: opportunity, taken; politics; stress

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.

The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Copyright © 1982, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.