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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELDIt is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
More Steven Pressfield Quotes
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It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
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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.
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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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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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We will have to choose between the life we want for our future and the life we have left behind.
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Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.
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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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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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The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.
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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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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.
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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.
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Resistance is greatest just before the finish line.
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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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Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.
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I wrote in the War of Art that I could divide my life neatly into two parts: before turning pro and after. After is better.
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It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.
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Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within.
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The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.
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It’s better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.
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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.
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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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Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
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Don’t prepare, do. Don’t let Resistance sucker you into wasting months on background, foundation, planning. All that can come later.
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What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead.
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Never 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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD