It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.
 Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). copy citation

Context

“They seem to lack their usual common sense in this. I have climbed several higher mountains without guide or path, and have found, as might be expected, that it takes only more time and patience commonly than to travel the smoothest highway. It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount. It is true we may come to a perpendicular precipice, but we need not jump off nor run our heads against it. A man may jump down his own cellar stairs or dash his brains out against his chimney, if he is mad.” source