"To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not"
About this Quote
Kleiser’s line is optimism with a spine: it doesn’t flatter you with “you can do anything,” it corners you with “the answer is already there.” The rhetorical trick is that it shifts the drama from invention to discovery. Your job isn’t to conjure a miracle; it’s to stop being the person who can’t see what’s in front of them. That’s both comforting (the world is solvable) and quietly accusatory (your ignorance is the bottleneck).
The subtext reflects Kleiser’s era and vocation. As a turn-of-the-century self-improvement author, he wrote for a culture newly obsessed with efficiency, habit, and practical mastery - the early 20th century’s faith that modern life could be engineered into coherence. Framed that way, “problem” becomes less a tragedy than a puzzle, and “solution” becomes a kind of existing technology: a method, a routine, a perspective, a known best practice waiting to be applied.
Intent-wise, it’s motivational, but not sentimental. It’s a nudge toward agency through humility: admit you don’t know yet, then act like the knowable exists. The line also sells a worldview central to self-help: guidance is out there (often in books like Kleiser’s), and progress comes from disciplined attention, not genius.
Of course, it’s a philosophy with sharp edges. It downplays structural constraints and genuinely unsolved problems, making it best read as a posture for personal obstacles: assume solvability, and you’re more likely to keep looking long enough to find what was, in retrospect, “already” available.
The subtext reflects Kleiser’s era and vocation. As a turn-of-the-century self-improvement author, he wrote for a culture newly obsessed with efficiency, habit, and practical mastery - the early 20th century’s faith that modern life could be engineered into coherence. Framed that way, “problem” becomes less a tragedy than a puzzle, and “solution” becomes a kind of existing technology: a method, a routine, a perspective, a known best practice waiting to be applied.
Intent-wise, it’s motivational, but not sentimental. It’s a nudge toward agency through humility: admit you don’t know yet, then act like the knowable exists. The line also sells a worldview central to self-help: guidance is out there (often in books like Kleiser’s), and progress comes from disciplined attention, not genius.
Of course, it’s a philosophy with sharp edges. It downplays structural constraints and genuinely unsolved problems, making it best read as a posture for personal obstacles: assume solvability, and you’re more likely to keep looking long enough to find what was, in retrospect, “already” available.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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