"Expect problems and eat them for breakfast"
About this Quote
"Eat them for breakfast" does the heavy lifting. Breakfast is ordinary, daily, unglamorous. By placing problems there, the quote shrinks them to the size of a morning ritual. It’s also a dominance metaphor, but softened by humor: you don’t wrestle problems heroically at midnight; you metabolize them with your coffee. That’s why it sticks. It offers agency without pretending you control the world, only your stance toward it.
The subtext is a mid-century self-mastery ethos: discipline, preparedness, a kind of cheerful stoicism that plays well in business culture and motivational speech. Montapert, writing in an era that prized grit and personal responsibility, gives you a slogan that flatters competence while sidestepping melodrama. Still, there’s an edge worth noticing: if every problem is breakfast, the burden stays individual. The quote energizes, but it also implies that struggle is a personal management issue, not always a structural one. That tension is exactly what makes it culturally durable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Overcoming Obstacles |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: The Wild Diet (Abel James, 2015) modern compilationISBN: 9780698185166 · ID: pl4-BAAAQBAJ
Evidence:
... Expect problems and eat them for breakfast . -Alfred A. Montapert As s an undergraduate , I led wilderness trips for the Dartmouth Outdoors Club where I'd teach incoming freshmen how to live in the woods . Despite the fact that these ... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Montapert, Alfred A. (2026, February 26). Expect problems and eat them for breakfast. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/expect-problems-and-eat-them-for-breakfast-171121/
Chicago Style
Montapert, Alfred A. "Expect problems and eat them for breakfast." FixQuotes. February 26, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/expect-problems-and-eat-them-for-breakfast-171121/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Expect problems and eat them for breakfast." FixQuotes, 26 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/expect-problems-and-eat-them-for-breakfast-171121/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.







