Steven Pressfield quotes

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. (Steven Pressfield)
The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist. View quote
Steven Pressfield
You have never tasted freedom friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel. View quote
Steven Pressfield
If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do. View quote
Steven Pressfield
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. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got. View quote
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. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. View quote
Steven Pressfield
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. View quote
Steven Pressfield
To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution. View quote
Steven Pressfield
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. (Steven Pressfield)
Our job in this lifetime 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. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The opposite of fear is love - love of the challenge, love of the work, the pure joyous passion to take a shot at our dream and see if we can pull it off. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The song we're composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it. View quote
Steven Pressfield
A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You, the artist or entrepreneur, are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it with passion and intention and hope. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Resistance by definition is self-sabotage. View quote
Steven Pressfield
He who whets his steel, whets his courage. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within. View quote
Steven Pressfield
As all born teachers, he was primarily a student. View quote
Steven Pressfield
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie. (Steven Pressfield)
A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this. View quote
Steven Pressfield
We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what's important first. View quote
Steven Pressfield
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. View quote
Steven Pressfield