Like many things in life, the problem I had been so sure I could solve proved more difficult than it sounded.

The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alteration of old beliefs.

You got to where you are in your life right now by moving along the path of least resistance.

In life, the path of least resistance is always silence. If you don’t express your feelings and thoughts to others, you don’t have to deal with their reactions to it. You don’t have to feel vulnerable. You don’t risk rejection. But I’ll tell you what: the path of least resistance leads exactly where that ride leads to.” He pointed again to the carts looping around the track.

The path of least resistance is the path of the loser

You are like a river. You go through life taking the path of least resistance. We all do — all human beings and all of nature. It is important to know that. You may try to change the direction of your own flow in certain areas of your life — your eating habits, the way you work, the way you relate to others, the way you treat yourself, the attitudes you have about life. And you may even succeed for a time. But eventually you will find you return to your original behavior and attitudes. This is because your life is determined, insofar as it is a law of nature for you to take the path of least resistance.

The solution to one problem is merely the creation of the next one

I wanted to reach what was right on the right paths. And so I began to live mistaken.

This I did with all my will and apparently indefatigably (but I will one day drop with weariness)—I invented a different practical world that made no sense and took the heart out of me. Instead of resigning, I reacted, in moments of despair, by thinking up something else, and behaving as if this more pleasing landscape might indeed come to be the case.

Any problem solved is a new problem made.

abandoned the path of least resistance, and sought out the difficult and most challenging tasks they could find.

I then reached for a time honored tactic used by mathematicians: if you can't solve the real problem, change it into one you can solve.

Each time I thought I had achieved my life’s purpose, I discovered it was only another step in my journey.

I succeeded by following the same method, which consists in regarding the problem as solved and deducing from the solution all logical consequences.