Read the following passage and answer the question. 'The river does not ask the stone why it is hard; it simply flows around it, patient and persistent, knowing that time is its greatest ally. So too must the wise man navigate the obstacles life places before him — not with brute force, but with the quiet power of endurance.' The central message of this passage is that

The passage uses the extended metaphor of a river flowing around a stone to convey that wise people overcome obstacles through patient endurance rather than direct confrontation. The concluding sentence explicitly states this lesson: 'not with brute force, but with the quiet power of endurance.' Options A and D take the metaphor too literally, while C distorts the meaning of 'navigate.'