The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.
STEVEN PRESSFIELDNever forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny.
More Steven Pressfield Quotes
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When we’re living as amateurs, we’re running away from our calling – meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves.
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Ignorance and arrogance are the artist’s and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.”
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Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.
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The last thing we want is to remain as we are.
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The Spartans say that any army may win while it still has legs under it; the real test comes when all strength is fled and the men must produce victory on will alone.
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Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn’t just skills like computer technology. It’s the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.
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The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.
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Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
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Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.
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Every sun casts a shadow, and genius’s shadow is Resistance.
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Don’t prepare. Begin. Our enemy is not lack of preparation. The enemy is resistance, our chattering brain producing excuses. Start before you are ready.
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The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
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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.
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Our greatest battle is to become ourselves, in the face of adversity.
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A cavalryman’s horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be allowed to know this.
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When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen… Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose.
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As all born teachers, he was primarily a student.
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A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.
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The artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don’t believe me, ask Van Gogh, who produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life.
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This man has conquered the world! What have you done?” The philosopher replied without an instant’s hesitation, “I have conquered the need to conquer the world.
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Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?
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We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become. We are who we are from the cradle, and we’re stuck with it.
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There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
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Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.
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The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.
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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.
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