Quotes by Steven Pressfield

“Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”

“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.”

“To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.”

“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.”

“We experience [procrastination] as fear. But fear of what?Fear of the consequences of following our heart. Fear of bankruptcy, fear of poverty, fear of insolvency. Fear of groveling when we try to ...”

“The 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.”

“O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who, after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy, was made to stay grievously about t...”

“Were all pros already. 1) We show up every day 2) We show up no matter what 3) We stay on the job all day 4) We are committed over the long haul 5) The stakes for us are high and real 6) We accept ...”

“In other words, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term grown, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our high nature instead of our l...”

“Lat at nigh have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were mean to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who do...”

“...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.”

“The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable.”

“In my younger days dodging the draft, I somehow wound up in the Marine Corps. There's a myth that Marine training turns baby-faced recruits into bloodthirsty killers. Trust me, the Marine Corps is ...”

“I wouldnt say art as much as virtue, in the ancient Greek sense of andreia manly action or arete, excellence. In my experience, Resistance kicks in any time we try to move ourselves from a lower ...”

“To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.”

“The Muse honors the working stiff.”

“Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North - meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.We can use this. We can u...”

“Sweetest of all is liberty. This we have chosen and this we pay for. We have embraced the laws of Lykurgus, and they are stern laws. They have schooled us to scorn the life of leisure, which this r...”

“Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

“Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.”