An obstacle is often a stepping stone.

The aphorism reframes adversity as instrumental rather than merely obstructive: what blocks progress can, with ingenuity or persistence, become the very means of advancing. It implies an active stance toward difficulty—learning from setbacks, using constraints to sharpen strategy, and converting resistance into leverage. The image of a “stepping stone” suggests incremental progress: obstacles are not magically removed but are incorporated into one’s path. As a piece of moral counsel, it aligns with common nineteenth-century self-help and providential rhetoric, though the sentiment is broadly proverbial and often detached from a verifiable single origin.