"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them"
About this Quote
“Obstacles” here aren’t framed as facts of the world so much as products of our posture toward the world. Marden’s verb choice does the heavy lifting: “melt away” suggests that many barriers are less like walls and more like ice - solid-seeming until you change the conditions. The conditions he targets are psychological. “Cowering” turns a problem into a predator; it’s an image of self-shrinkage, of surrendering space before anything even touches you. Against that, “make up our minds” makes courage sound almost bureaucratic: a decision, not a personality trait. Then comes the kicker: “walk boldly through them.” Not around, not over, not after a perfect plan. Through. The sentence sells agency as a form of motion.
The subtext is classic early self-help: the interior life is the lever that moves the exterior world. That’s both the quote’s strength and its sleight of hand. It’s motivating because it grants the reader immediate control - you can’t fix the economy or your childhood, but you can change how you meet the next hard thing. It’s also quietly moralizing: if obstacles don’t “melt away,” maybe you didn’t walk boldly enough.
Context matters. Marden came of age in late-19th-century America, a period intoxicated with self-making, industrial growth, and the Protestant-flavored belief that character equals destiny. His intent isn’t to map structural reality; it’s to recruit the reader into a mindset of forward motion, where fear is treated as the real antagonist and decisiveness as a kind of social technology.
The subtext is classic early self-help: the interior life is the lever that moves the exterior world. That’s both the quote’s strength and its sleight of hand. It’s motivating because it grants the reader immediate control - you can’t fix the economy or your childhood, but you can change how you meet the next hard thing. It’s also quietly moralizing: if obstacles don’t “melt away,” maybe you didn’t walk boldly enough.
Context matters. Marden came of age in late-19th-century America, a period intoxicated with self-making, industrial growth, and the Protestant-flavored belief that character equals destiny. His intent isn’t to map structural reality; it’s to recruit the reader into a mindset of forward motion, where fear is treated as the real antagonist and decisiveness as a kind of social technology.
Quote Details
| Topic | Overcoming Obstacles |
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