Steven Pressfield
Nothing fires the warrior’s heart more with courage than to find himself and his comrades at the point of annihilation, at the brink of being routed and overrun, and then to dredge not merely from one’s own bowels or guts but from one’s discipline and training the presence of mind not to panic, not to yield to the possession of despair, but instead to complete those homely acts of order which Dienekes had ever declared the supreme accomplishment of the warrior: to perform the commonplace under far-from-commonplace conditions.Collection: Heart
Seeking support from friends and and family is like having people gathered around at your deathbed. It's nice, but when the ship sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.Collection: Goodbye
The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.Collection: Inspirational
The only intercourse possible between the knight and the dragon is battle.Collection: Knights
You have never tasted freedom, friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.Collection: Gold
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.Collection: Hate
Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?Collection: Earth
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.Collection: Lying
As artists and professionals, it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture.Collection: Artist
You are a writer when you tell yourself you are. No one else's opinion matters. Screw them. You are when you say you are.Collection: Matter
The opposite of fear," Dienekes said, "is love.Collection: Opposites
As resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.Collection: Angel
The professional does not permit himself to become hidebound within one incarnation, however comfortable or successful. Like a transmigrating soul, he shucks his outworn body and dons a new one. He continues his journey.Collection: Work
Fear doesn't go away. The battle must be fought anew every day.Collection: Fear
We're wrong if we think we're the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.Collection: Struggle
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.Collection: Degrees
Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?Collection: Resistance
The professional conducts his business in the real world. Adversity, injustice, bad hops and rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged. The field is level, the professional understands, only in heaven.Collection: Real
On the field of The Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.Collection: Positivity
Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue.Collection: Virtue
It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breathe... The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.Collection: Race
Playing for money, or adopting the attitude of one who plays for money, lowers the fever.Collection: Money