Steven Pressfield Quotes

127 Sourced Quotes

I have always found the spear to be a rather inelegant weapon

Steven Pressfield
When we are succeeding - that is, when we have begun to overcome our self-doubt and self-sabotage, when we are advancing in our craft and evolving to a higher level - that's when panic strikes. When we experience panic, it means that we're about to cross a threshold. We're poised on the doorstep of a higher plane.

Steven Pressfield
We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are... That we actually have the guts, the perserverance, the capacity... because, if it's true, then we become estranged from all we know.

Steven Pressfield
Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.

Steven Pressfield
The more you love your art/ calling/ enterprise, the more important its accomplishment to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more Resistance you will experience facing it.

Steven Pressfield
The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness. The Ego hates this. Because the more awake we become, the less we need the Ego.

Steven Pressfield
Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.

Steven Pressfield
Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.

Steven Pressfield
Evolution has programmed us to feel rejection in our guts. This is how the tribe inforced obedience, by wielding the threat of expulsion. Fear of rejection isn't just psychological; it's biological. It's in our cells.

Steven Pressfield
Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.

Steven Pressfield
Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?

Steven Pressfield
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.

Steven Pressfield
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.

Steven Pressfield
The part we create from can't be touched by anything our parents did, or society did. That part is unsullied, uncorrupted; soundproof, waterproof, and bulletproof. In fact, the more troubles we've got, the better and richer that part becomes.

Steven Pressfield
These are not easy questions. Who am I? Why am I here? They're not easy because the human being isn't wired to function as an individual.

Steven Pressfield
The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul,

Steven Pressfield
It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it.

Steven Pressfield
In the hierarchy, the artist faces outward. Meeting someone new he asks himself, What can this person do for me? How can this person advance my standing? In the hierarchy, the artist looks up and looks down. The one place he can't look is that place he must: within.

Steven Pressfield
The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.

Steven Pressfield
Playing for money, or adopting the attitude of one who plays for money, lowers the fever.

Steven Pressfield
The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself. Is he scared? Hell, yes. He's petrified.

Steven Pressfield
When we turn pro we stop running from our fears. We turn around and face them.

Steven Pressfield
Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.

Steven Pressfield
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.

Steven Pressfield
We will have to choose between the life we want for our future and the life we have left behind.

Steven Pressfield
You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study... Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.

Steven Pressfield
We cannot let external criticism, even if it's true, fortify our internal foe. That foe is strong enough already.

Steven Pressfield
Do I really believe that my work is crucial to the planet's survival? Of course not. But it's as important to me as catching that mouse is to the hawk circling outside my window. He's hungry. He needs a kill. So do I.

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

Steven Pressfield
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.

Steven Pressfield