Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.

Marden’s sentence distills a central theme of late‑19th/early‑20th‑century self-help: many difficulties are amplified by fear, hesitation, and anticipatory dread. The “obstacles” are not denied, but their apparent solidity is portrayed as partly psychological—something that can “melt away” when met with decisive action. The contrast between “cowering” and “walk boldly through” frames courage as a practical habit rather than a heroic exception: progress comes from committing to movement despite uncertainty. The line also implies a moral of agency—choosing a stance toward adversity can change how formidable it becomes, and action often reveals that barriers were smaller, more negotiable, or more temporary than imagined.