Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them.”
- Date
- 1848
Meaning of “If you would have your son to walk…”
Gilbert argues that moral strength is developed by learning to face difficulty rather than by having every obstacle removed in advance.
Where does it come from?
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Chapter III, “A Controversy,” Project Gutenberg #969. Gilbert Markham argues that a son should learn to meet obstacles rather than have every stone cleared from his path; Helen Graham immediately challenges the gendered educational distinction behind the argument. It is one side of a fictional debate, not Anne Brontë’s unqualified parenting rule.