The original quote is from G. Michael Hopf, in Those Who Remain (2016):

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times."

<https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8751435-hard-times-create-s...>

It reflects many former cyclical-view-of-history / social cycle theory concepts, dating back literally thousands of years:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_cycle_theory>