"In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest"
About this Quote
Miller takes a swing at the great modern fantasy: that life can be hacked. The line sounds like a moral aphorism, but it’s really an insult disguised as advice, aimed at an “age” addicted to efficiency as a religion. By calling out the belief in shortcuts, he’s not just critiquing laziness; he’s naming a cultural mood that treats friction as failure and waiting as stupidity.
The sentence is built like a trap. It sets up a commonsense expectation - easiest means easiest - then flips it with a paradox that feels irritatingly true once you sit with it. “Most difficult” doesn’t mean gratuitous suffering; it means the route that forces you to actually learn the terrain: the slow apprenticeship, the unglamorous repetition, the uncomfortable honesty. The payoff is practical, not mystical. When you avoid the hard way, you don’t eliminate difficulty; you postpone it and compound it, usually with interest. The hard way front-loads the cost so you’re not paying for it forever.
Coming from Miller, the subtext is also autobiographical. This is a writer who mythologized artistic freedom and despised bourgeois respectability, yet he understood that liberation isn’t the same as convenience. His work insists that real creation and real living are messy, embarrassing, stubbornly physical processes. The “short cut” is the respectable life plan; the “most difficult way” is the demanding, self-authored one. He’s warning that the easiest-looking path often makes you someone else’s employee - even when you think you’re winning.
The sentence is built like a trap. It sets up a commonsense expectation - easiest means easiest - then flips it with a paradox that feels irritatingly true once you sit with it. “Most difficult” doesn’t mean gratuitous suffering; it means the route that forces you to actually learn the terrain: the slow apprenticeship, the unglamorous repetition, the uncomfortable honesty. The payoff is practical, not mystical. When you avoid the hard way, you don’t eliminate difficulty; you postpone it and compound it, usually with interest. The hard way front-loads the cost so you’re not paying for it forever.
Coming from Miller, the subtext is also autobiographical. This is a writer who mythologized artistic freedom and despised bourgeois respectability, yet he understood that liberation isn’t the same as convenience. His work insists that real creation and real living are messy, embarrassing, stubbornly physical processes. The “short cut” is the respectable life plan; the “most difficult way” is the demanding, self-authored one. He’s warning that the easiest-looking path often makes you someone else’s employee - even when you think you’re winning.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
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