Steven Pressfield quotes - page 2

The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation. (Steven Pressfield)
A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It's only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate. View quote
Steven Pressfield
This man has conquered the world! What have you done?" The philosopher replied without an instant's hesitation, "I have conquered the need to conquer the world. View quote
Steven Pressfield
It's better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it? View quote
Steven Pressfield
The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death. View quote
Steven Pressfield
To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn't just skills like computer technology. It's the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we're thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don't show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin', no matter what. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don't believe me, ask Van Gogh, who produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Start before you're ready. (Steven Pressfield)
Straight to her face advanced the Athenian Lykos, and it must be said that it took no slender spirit for him to do so, such was the light of slaughter in the Amazon's eyes. "What do you call this, thou savage!" The prince gestured to the broth irrigating the walls and floors of the canyon. "Are these God's footsteps?" Is this the 'path of holiness' in which your race treads?" Theseus hastened forward, reining-in at his countryman's shoulder. "This is not war," Lykos bellowed to Antiope. "It is butchery!" Theseus sought to speak, as if to offer extenuation for the actions of the Amazons. Lykos cut him off with a curse. "You cannot defend the indefensible!" View quote
Steven Pressfield
The Mammoth we attacked was not Rommel's after all. [...] Rommel himself, we'll learn later, was not in that camp and never had been. At the time of our raid, he was with the 15th Panzer Division, somewhere west of Kidney Ridge, in the thick of the fighting at El Alamein. View quote
Steven Pressfield
I had become someone they could look to for leadership and direction, who would shield from meddling from above, and would ask no act of them that he wasn't prepared to perform himself. I provided for my men a framework within which they were freed to use their own qualities of courage, resourcefulness and tenacity. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn't talk about it. She does her work. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Next morning I went over to Paul's for coffee and told him I had finished. "Good for you,” he said without looking up. "Start the next one today. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Humankind is commanded to ascend from savagery. This is God's mandate, which cries out from the epicenter of our being: the imperative to mount from the base to the noble, from the savage to the civil, from beast to human. View quote
Steven Pressfield
If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death. View quote
Steven Pressfield
A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. "I write only when inspiration strikes," he replied. "Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The opposite of fear," Dienekes said, "is love. (Steven Pressfield)
Persian envoy "our arrows will black out the sun..." Dienekes of the Spartans.."Good, then we'll fight in the shade. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Do you love your country? [...] This man, with his life, has preserved it. Bear him with honor. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Both men were aware of the imperative held by all warrior races to serve honor before survival. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Among the ways the Spartans differ from other peoples is this. When an ally in distress applies to them for aid, they alone dispatch neither troops nor treasure but a solitary commander, a general. This officer alone, assuming charge of the beleagured forces, is sufficiant, they feel, to turn affairs about and produce victory. This as the world knows is what happened at Syracuse. View quote
Steven Pressfield