“Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the same time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained.
In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo . . . the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.”
Malcolm Muggeridge
Gralefrit Theology 
What is the source of the quote for foot note purposes.
Book,page,etc.?
It’s from a Muggeridge book I can no longer find I’m afraid, but I notice it has been quoted in a Ravi Zacharias book called Why Suffering? which is able to be viewed on Google Books but I can’t access the footnote details. The book was published nearly two years after my blog post and I’m surprised it doesn’t seem to have been quoted more. Hope you find it.