Noun
a state of misfortune or affliction
Source: WordNetThose whom fate has dealt hard knocks remain vulnerable for ever afterwards. Stefan Zweig
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. D. H. Lawrence
Do not allow to slip away from you freedoms the people who came before you won with such hard knocks. D. H. Lawrence
Life gives you enough hard knocks so it's unlikely you'll stay that sure of yourself. Jeanette Winterson
As my father would have said, I went through the college of hard knocks. Gloria Allred
The chap that endures hard knocks like a man enjoys a soft time later on. Plautus