Quote checked against the text
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” — attributed to Seneca
In substance, yes; in this wording, no. The idea is at On Providence, IV; Aubrey Stewart’s 1889 edition is quoted below, and the sentence as it circulates is not this translator’s.
In substance, yes. Stewart’s On Providence (1889), chapter IV, runs the comparison whole: “that part of each man which he exercises is the strongest: so by endurance the mind becomes able to despise the power of misfortunes.” Neither “strengthen the mind” nor “labor does the body”, nor the spelling “labour”, returns a line in the 30 Gummere letters we hold, out of 124, or in the ten dialogues.
The chapter reads fortune as a training partner: “it is not cruelty, it is a struggle, in which the oftener we engage the braver we shall become”, and good men are shaken in order that they may be strengthened. Gummere’s Letter 13 takes the thought from the other end: no prizefighter can go with high spirits into the strife if he has never been beaten black and blue.
The maxim that circulates compresses that chapter; it is neither translator’s sentence. On Providence is one of the ten dialogues we hold in Stewart, and one of those whose chapters align with Baillard’s French. The editions are described at Sources.
What we searched
Each fragment is searched, normalized, in every file of the editions below. The block is the search and its result, replayed at each build.
The wording was searched in the 30 letters of Gummere’s translation (1917–1925) we hold, out of 124, and in the ten dialogues we have from Stewart’s 1889 volume.
$ node tools/seo/grep-quote.mjs --lang en "strengthen the mind" "labor does the body" "labour does the body" "the mind becomes able to despise" "the hands of farmers by work"
George Long, 1862 — Meditations · 12 books, 487 chapters (1 file)
"strengthen the mind" 0 hits
"labor does the body" 0 hits
"labour does the body" 0 hits
"the mind becomes able to despise" 0 hits
"the hands of farmers by work" 0 hits
Richard Mott Gummere, 1917–1925 — Letters to Lucilius · 30 letters of 124 (30 files)
"strengthen the mind" 0 hits
"labor does the body" 0 hits
"labour does the body" 0 hits
"the mind becomes able to despise" 0 hits
"the hands of farmers by work" 0 hits
Aubrey Stewart, 1889 — Minor Dialogues · 10 dialogues, 6 aligned with Baillard chapter for chapter (10 files)
"strengthen the mind" 0 hits
"labor does the body" 0 hits
"labour does the body" 0 hits
"the mind becomes able to despise" 1 hit
of-providence.txt l. 27 …so by endurance the mind becomes able to despise the power of…
"the hands of farmers by work" 1 hit
of-providence.txt l. 27 …the sea, and the hands of farmers by work; the arms…
Elizabeth Carter, 1758 — Enchiridion · 52 chapters (Carter’s numbering) (1 file)
"strengthen the mind" 0 hits
"labor does the body" 0 hits
"labour does the body" 0 hits
"the mind becomes able to despise" 0 hits
"the hands of farmers by work" 0 hits
George Long, 1877 — Discourses (selection) and Enchiridion · a selection of the Discourses, without book or chapter numbers, plus the Enchiridion (1 file)
"strengthen the mind" 0 hits
"labor does the body" 0 hits
"labour does the body" 0 hits
"the mind becomes able to despise" 0 hits
"the hands of farmers by work" 0 hits
$ node tools/seo/grep-quote.mjs --lang fr "fortifient l'esprit" "fortifie le corps" "sont celles qu'il a exercées" "la plus robuste est celle que nous avons"
Auguste Couat, 1904 — Pensées · 12 books, 487 chapters (IV, 19–20 and VII, 47–48 merged by the translator) (12 files)
"fortifient l'esprit" 0 hits
"fortifie le corps" 0 hits
"sont celles qu'il a exercées" 0 hits
"la plus robuste est celle que nous avons" 0 hits
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, 1876 — Pensées · 12 books, 487 chapters — second French edition, shown beside Couat (12 files)
"fortifient l'esprit" 0 hits
"fortifie le corps" 0 hits
"sont celles qu'il a exercées" 0 hits
"la plus robuste est celle que nous avons" 0 hits
Joseph Baillard, 1861 — Lettres à Lucilius · 29 letters of 124 (29 files)
"fortifient l'esprit" 0 hits
"fortifie le corps" 0 hits
"sont celles qu'il a exercées" 0 hits
"la plus robuste est celle que nous avons" 0 hits
Joseph Baillard, 1861 — Dialogues et traités · 11 works, 6 aligned with Stewart chapter for chapter (11 files)
"fortifient l'esprit" 0 hits
"fortifie le corps" 0 hits
"sont celles qu'il a exercées" 1 hit
de-la-providence.txt l. 53 …de chaque homme sont celles qu’il a exercées. Pour braver…
"la plus robuste est celle que nous avons" 1 hit
de-la-providence.txt l. 53 …de notre corps la plus robuste est celle que nous avons le plus mise…
Jean-Marie Guyau, 1875 — Manuel · 53 chapters (modern numbering) (1 file)
"fortifient l'esprit" 0 hits
"fortifie le corps" 0 hits
"sont celles qu'il a exercées" 0 hits
"la plus robuste est celle que nous avons" 0 hits
Victor Courdaveaux, 1862 — Entretiens · 9 chapters of the Discourses (I, 1 · I, 15 · I, 18 · I, 24 · I, 25 · II, 13 · II, 18 · III, 16 · III, 24) (9 files)
"fortifient l'esprit" 0 hits
"fortifie le corps" 0 hits
"sont celles qu'il a exercées" 0 hits
"la plus robuste est celle que nous avons" 0 hitsThis sentence appears once in the list of circulating quotes we collected on 2026-08-09.
What the text says
Thus the bodies of sailors are hardened by endurance of the sea, and the hands of farmers by work; the arms of soldiers are powerful to hurl darts, the legs of runners are active: that part of each man which he exercises is the strongest: so by endurance the mind becomes able to despise the power of misfortunes.
How to cite
The idea, not this wording, is at:
Seneca, On Providence, IV (trans. Aubrey Stewart, 1889)
Other sentences checked
All sentences attributed to SenecaAll quote checks
Every passage in Stoïque carries its reference. The 171 passages of Seneca are in Stoic+, each with its locator.