Quotes from Steven Pressfield

Ambition, I have come to believe, is the most primal and sacred fundament of our being. To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence. Those

This is how Resistance disfigures love. The stew it creates is rich, it's colorful; Tennessee Williams could work it up into a trilogy. But is it love? If we're the supporting partner, shouldn't we face our own failure to pursue our unlived life, rather than hitchhike on our spouse's coattails? And if we're the supported partner, shouldn't we step out from the glow of our loved one's adoration and instead encourage him to let his own light shine?

Colonel L., in whose eyes I was a first-rate Riot Acter or, worse, an intellectual—in his phrase, "someone who reads books"—the most damning appraisal that could be made of a junior lieutenant.

So if you're paralyzed with fear, it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.

Well, you think you're so clever and classless and free But you're all fucking peasants As far as I can see

John Lennon once wrote: Well, you think you're so clever and classless and free But you're all fucking peasants As far as I can see

What is the pain of being human? It's the condition of being suspended between two worlds and being unable to fully enter into either.

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

The sarissa's song is a sad song. He pipes it soft and low. I would ply a gentler trade, says he, But war is all I know.

Resistance is a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.

We know that if we embrace our ideals, we must prove worthy of them. And that scares the hell out of us.

Every warrior virtue proceeds from this—courage, selflessness, love of and loyalty to one's comrades, patience, self-command, the will to endure adversity.

All genuine epiphanies seem to follow this model: their defining quality is the relinquishment of delusion.

What fascinates me about the character of Alexander the Great is that he seemed to see the future with such clarity and such intensity as to make it virtually impossible that it would not come true—and that he would be the one to make it so.

Life is action, Junah. Even choosing not to act, we act. We cannot do otherwise. Therefore act with vigor!

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. If we were born to paint, it's our job to become a painter. If

Resistance first feel like unhappiness. We're bored, no satisfaction, guilt, but we can't put our finger on it. Vices kick in.

I'm keenly aware of the Principle of Priority, which states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what's important first.

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.

Technically, the professional takes money. Technically, the pro plays for pay. But in the end, he does it for love.

Who slays a tyrant is no murderer but patriot. A deliverer of his country, as Harmodius and Aristogeiton!

The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time.

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.

go to sleep content, but my final thought is of Resistance. I will wake up with it tomorrow. Already I am steeling myself.