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It’s a Mao quote. The source I was reading cited it as coming from Strategic Questions in China’s Revolutionary War, though the copy on marxists.org appears to be a different translation and the exact phrase doesn’t appear. The closest I could find in the linked source is “Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it.”
The context the source was using it in wasn’t idealist, but the idealism is definitely what appealed to me enough to post it here. Out of its original context it sounds like, as we say here in the US, “mind over matter”.
Problems of Strategy: "To put the two statements together we may cite the Chinese adage, “Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it.”
So it isn’t a Mao quote he is quoting an old adage.
If you want to quote Mao the second half is the good part: "To cross the threshold is not difficult and mastery, too, is possible provided one sets one’s mind to the task and is good at learning."
A good materialist always hedges statements with "if"s and "possible"s