Steven Pressfield Quotes (70 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Works

Tides of War

Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield: 70 quotes 2 likes

Famous Steven Pressfield Quotes

“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

“Humankind is commanded to ascend from savagery. This is God's mandate, which cries out from the epicenter of our being: the imperative to mount from the base to the noble, from the savage to the civil, from beast to human.”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Theseus p. 119
Last of the Amazons (2002)

“If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.”

Steven Pressfield

“Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“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

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Steven Pressfield Quotes about love

“The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: Do the Work

“Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you're feeling massive Resistance, the good news is that it means there's tremendous love there too.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“The opposite of fear," Dienekes said, "is love.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: Do the Work

“The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Steven Pressfield Quotes about men

“Both men were aware of the imperative held by all warrior races to serve honor before survival.”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Mother Bones (Narrator) p. 10
Last of the Amazons (2002)

“These are armed enemy, who have hastened to this site with one object only: to take the lives of my comanions and me. I must take theirs first. No truth could be plainer. Yet at the same time nothing can alter the fact that beneath the fascist insignia of their uniforms, these men are fathers, husbands, sons.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Richmond Chapman, p. 204
Killing Rommel (2008)

“I could be counted upon to perform the mission they had assigned me, or, if that was unworkable, to improvise and turn my men's exertions upon a secondary undertaking as good as or better than the first.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Richmond Chapman, p. 175, the first criteria for an able commander
Killing Rommel (2008)

“I approve of all you say, gentlemen. The fleet's needs are many and urgent. One, however, must take precedence. This item the men need before all, and we must get it for them without fail and without deferral. We must get the men a victory.”

Steven Pressfield book Tides of War

Alcibades, p. 245
Tides of War (2000)

“I had become someone they could look to for leadership and direction, who would shield from meddling from above, and would ask no act of them that he wasn't prepared to perform himself. I provided for my men a framework within which they were freed to use their own qualities of courage, resourcefulness and tenacity.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Richmond Chapman, p. 175, the second criteria for an able commander
Killing Rommel (2008)

“Bear your command with humility. Lead, do not condescend. Remember, these are great events and men will rise to them. Treat every man as a Soldier. He may surprise you and be one.”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Theseus p. 210
Last of the Amazons (2002)

Steven Pressfield: Trending quotes

“Give them this: they were tough. Tougher than the Scyths and Getai, for all their savage valor, and tougher than the Amazons, despite their dash and dazzle.”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Damon p. 308
Last of the Amazons (2002)
Context: The foe fell back. Our companies pushed through. For the time it takes to count to five hundred, I thought we might even conquer. For now the mulishness of the Athenian Soldier-farmer, the pigheaded refusal to yield which had at first been scorned by his betters-now this shone to the fore. By the gods, these clodkickers had learned how to fight! [... ] They no longer fell apart at the apparition of cowardice among their comrades or themselves, but had come to understand that the same man may play the craven in the morning and the hero in the afternoon. Give them this: they were tough. Tougher than the Scyths and Getai, for all their savage valor, and tougher than the Amazons, despite their dash and dazzle.

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Death , Confidence , Chance , Self-confidence

“A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great

Horse

Steven Pressfield Quotes

“We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Motivational , Art

“The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Hell , Despair

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: Do the Work

Heart

“A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great

Horse , Madness

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great

World

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Fear

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

Steven Pressfield book The War of Art

Source: The War of Art (2002), p. 13

Courageous , Life

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

World , Parting , Cheating , Selfishness

“Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. "I write only when inspiration strikes," he replied. "Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Feeling , Soul

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Learning , Success , Happiness

“To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Love , Art

“The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn't talk about it. She does her work.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Variant: Our job in this life 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.
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Imagination

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Life , Effort

“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.”

Steven Pressfield

Fear

“Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you,” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Coffee

“You have never tasted freedom friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Dienekes p. 60
Gates of Fire (1998)
Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Freedom

“The song we’re composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: Do the Work

“Start before you're ready.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: Do the Work

“Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“He who whets his steel, whets his courage”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Courage

“Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within.”

Steven Pressfield

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“As all born teachers, he was primarily a student.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Teachers

“Persian envoy "our arrows will black out the sun…" Dienekes of the Spartans.."Good, then we'll fight in the shade.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Sun , Fight

“Fear saps passion.”

Steven Pressfield

Do the Work

Fear , Passion

“Do you love your country? […] This man, with his life, has preserved it. Bear him with honor.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Orontes (Handing over Xeones' corpse to Athenian civilians) p. 430
Gates of Fire (1998)

Love , Life , Country

“The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

Steven Pressfield book The War of Art

Source: The War of Art (2002), p. 50

Death , Confidence , Self-confidence

“Nothing relieves Irish despair. The Irishman's complaint lies not with his circumstance, which might be rendered brilliant by labour or luck, but with injustice of existence itself. Death! How could a benevolent Deity gift us with life, only to set such a cruel term upon it? Irish despair knows no remedy. Love fades; fame is fleeting. The only cures are booze and sentiment. That's why the Irish are such noble drunks and glorious poets. No one sings like the Irish or mourns like them. Why? Because they're angels imprisoned in vessels of flesh.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Zachary Stein, p. 27
Killing Rommel (2008)

Love , Life , Death , Angels

“Among the ways the Spartans differ from other peoples is this. When an ally in distress applies to them for aid, they alone dispatch neither troops nor treasure but a solitary commander, a general. This officer alone, assuming charge of the beleagured forces, is sufficiant, they feel, to turn affairs about and produce victory. This as the world knows is what happened at Syracuse.”

Steven Pressfield book Tides of War

Polemides, p. 162
Tides of War (2000)

People , World , Way , Feeling

“The greatest commanders never issue orders. Rather, they compel by their own acts and virtue the emulation of those they command. The great champions throw leadership back on you. They make you answer: Who am I? What do I seek? What is the meaning of my existence in this life?”

Steven Pressfield book The Profession

Gent, p. 2
The Profession (2011)

Life

“It is a terrible thing to be a king, especially a great one, for one must serve ideals of the spirit at the price of lovers of flesh and blood. Who profits from a king's fidelity save generations a thousand years unborn, and which of his works will they recall at that remove, or care?”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Damon p. 221
Last of the Amazons (2002)

Lovers

“A youth loathes nothing more than his own callowness. Experience is his object. Experience, however ghastly, for the lad longs before all for the lined face and the chiseled squint of the vetern.”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Damon p. 91
Last of the Amazons (2002)

Youth

“Straight to her face advanced the Athenian Lykos, and it must be said that it took no slender spirit for him to do so, such was the light of slaughter in the Amazon's eyes. "What do you call this, thou savage!" The prince gestured to the broth irrigating the walls and floors of the canyon. "Are these God's footsteps?" Is this the 'path of holiness' in which your race treads?" Theseus hastened forward, reining-in at his countryman's shoulder. "This is not war," Lykos bellowed to Antiope. "It is butchery!" Theseus sought to speak, as if to offer extenuation for the actions of the Amazons. Lykos cut him off with a curse. "You cannot defend the indefensible!"”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Lykos p. 153
Last of the Amazons (2002)

God , War , Light

“At Athens and Athens alone, a new stamp of person was being born, neither baron nor yeoman, but a man of the city. A citizen.”

Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons

Father p. 87
Last of the Amazons (2002)

Personality

“One act I will never stand for is leaving our fellows behind. Bugger military protocol, or lofty notions of honour. I can't live with running out on a pal, and I won't let any of you do it either.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Major Mike Mallory, p. 60
Killing Rommel (2008)

“Why have I nominated you, lady, to bear up beneath this most terrible of trials, you and your sisters of the Three Hundred? Because you can.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Leonides p. 427
Gates of Fire (1998)

Sister

“To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.”

Steven Pressfield book The War of Art

Source: The War of Art (2002), p. 13

“This aspis was my father's and his father's before him. I have sworn before God to die before another man took this from my hand. He crossed to the ranks of Thespians, to a man, an obscure warrior among them. Into the fellow's grasp he placed the shield.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Polynikes p. 405
Gates of Fire (1998)

God

“You English are loath to embrace the virtues of the warrior. Such an act embarrasses you. You prefer to see yourselves as civilians summoned reluctantly to arms, as-what is the word?-'amatuers.' But you are warriors, you English. You are, Chapman. Trust me, who has faced you in the field.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Oberleutnant Ehrlich, wounded German POW, p. 237
Killing Rommel (2008)

“In the end the American dream boils down to what? I'm getting mine and to hell with you.”

Steven Pressfield book The Profession

General Salter, p. 306
The Profession (2011)

Dreams , Hell

“If you think this is funny, wait 'till you get into combat. You'll think that's hysterical!”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Polynikes p. 80
Gates of Fire (1998)

Thinking , Waiting

“The Mammoth we attacked was not Rommel's after all. […] Rommel himself, we'll learn later, was not in that camp and never had been. At the time of our raid, he was with the 15th Panzer Division, somewhere west of Kidney Ridge, in the thick of the fighting at El Alamein.”

Steven Pressfield book Killing Rommel

Richmond Chapman, p. 177
Killing Rommel (2008)

Learning , Time , Fight

“There is something I must tell you. When Leonidas selected you for the Three Hundred, I went to him in private and argued strenuously against your inclusion. I thought you would not fight. […] I was wrong.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Polynikes p. 324
Gates of Fire (1998)

Fight

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

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Apollo p. 47
Gates of Fire (1998)

“I love a guy who knows how to bitch. Any moron can gripe about chow or rotations, but someone who can get exercised over architecture is my kind of dude.”

Steven Pressfield book The Profession

Gent, p. 202
The Profession (2011)

Bitch , Love , Making love , Guy

“I had always wondered what it felt like to die.”

Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire

Gates of Fire (1998)

Similar authors

John F. Kennedy 469

35th president of the United States of America

Franklin D. Roosevelt 190

32nd President of the United States

George S. Patton 77

United States Army general

Donald J. Trump 904

45th President of the United States of America

Eleanor Roosevelt 148

American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady…

Ben Carson 191

17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urb…

Arthur Miller 147

playwright from the United States

Dwight D. Eisenhower 173

American general and politician, 34th president of the Unit…

Winston S. Churchill 601

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Ludwig von Mises 62

austrian economist

Similar authors

John F. Kennedy 469

35th president of the United States of America

Franklin D. Roosevelt 190

32nd President of the United States

George S. Patton 77

United States Army general

Donald J. Trump 904

45th President of the United States of America

Eleanor Roosevelt 148

American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady…