If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

Clark’s aphorism treats difficulty as a diagnostic: meaningful aims—personal growth, creative work, moral reform, or public achievement—tend to generate resistance, risk, and setbacks. A “path with no obstacles” suggests either triviality (nothing important is being attempted) or illusion (the route is so safe and conventional that it leads to no real change). The line also cautions against equating ease with correctness; friction can be evidence that one is moving beyond comfort, challenging entrenched habits, or pursuing an uncommon goal. Its significance lies in reframing obstacles from signs of failure into indicators of direction and purpose.