Amherst applicants, do we have to refer to the quote in the essay?

Like in the title, do we have to refer to the quote in the essay? (I know they told us we don't have to refer to the text from which the quote is taken..)

I'm using the #5- difficulty quote, and I feel like it'll be rather weird if I actually had the quote in the essay or if I directly referred to the quote in the essay.

This is the quote:
"Difficulty need not forshadow despair or defeat. Rather achievement can be all the more satisfying because of obstacles surmounted."

I'm in the exact same position as you.
I just had this before my essay:
In response to the following quotation:
"Difficulty need not foreshadow despair or defeat. Rather achievement can be all the more satisfying because of obstacles surmounted." Attributed to William Hastie, Amherst Class of 1925, first African-American to serve as a judge for the United States Court of Appeals

But I'm not sure if this is what we're supposed to do...

I am not familiar with this application or this school, but I think the thing to do is let the quote be the title of the essay so that they see that you are doing what they challenged you to do. Then, use key words from the quote in your first paragraph and topic sentences.

Another cool approach is to end the essay with the quote, as though it answers a question you pose in the essay.

Most importantly, start writing and feel around for that sense of inspiration.

I'm writing the same essay. I didn't exactly plan to include the quote in the essay. I think that if we were required or expected to include the quote as part of our essay, it would have been stated in the supplement. For the readers' convenience, we could include a prompt before the essay so that they have a point of reference in case they don't understand which quote we picked.