Steven Pressfield Quotes
Steven Pressfield Quotes
We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.
1558The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.
4659 The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.
2884 The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.
1270 Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
2661 The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.
2354 Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.
1772 To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.
3737 A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.
3019 A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.
2773 The Muse honors the working stiff.
2233 If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.
3573 Fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
4226 Always attack. Even in defense, attack. The attacking arm possesses the
initiative and thus commands the action. To attack makes men brave; to defend
makes them timorous.
2635 When deliberating, think in campaigns and not battles; in wars and not
campaigns; in ultimate conquest and not wars.
1516 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.
3296 The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.
1765 You have never tasted freedom, friend," Dienekes spoke, "or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.
2600 When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers.
2920 To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.
3950 A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center.
2037 We're never alone. As soon as we step outside the campfire glow, our Muse lights on our shoulder like a butterfly. The act of courage calls for infallibly that deeper part of ourselves that supports and sustains us.
3135 Start before you're ready.
4833 The enemy is Resistance.
2032 There's a problem with the hierarchical orientation, though. When the numbers get too big, the thing breaks down. A pecking order can hold only so many chickens.
1763 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.
3956 Steven Pressfield At Amazon
