Quotes from Steven Pressfield

our deepest instincts run counter to it. Evolution has programmed us to feel rejection in our guts. This is how the tribe enforced obedience, by wielding the threat of expulsion. Fear of rejection isn't just psychological; it's biological. It's in our cells.

Dienekes says the mind is like a house with many rooms. There are rooms one must not go into. To anticipate death is one of those rooms. We must not allow ourselves even to think it.

So she concentrates on technique. The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods.

Someone once asked the Spartan king Leonidas to identify the supreme warrior virtue from which all others flowed. He replied: "Contempt for death."   For us as artists, read "failure.

to elevate the race of humankind. To endow each individual with sovereignty over his own heart and to lift the state as a whole to govern itself.

Every morning you wake up and the dragon's there and you'd have to slay that dragon anew every morning. The only difference is that after you've done it enough times you, you now are confident that it can be done, but it never goes away, And there's no magic bullet.

BEYOND RESISTANCE The Higher Realm The first duty is to sacrifice to the gods and pray them to grant you the thoughts, words, and deeds likely to render your command most pleasing to the gods and to bring yourself, your friends, and your city the fullest measure of affection and glory and advantage. –Xenophon, The Cavalry Commander

Juro, companheiros, [os persas] eram tão numerosos que ao lançarem os projéteis a massa de flechas bloqueava o sol! Os olhos do boateiro estavam inflamados de prazer. Virou-se para o meu senhor, como se para saborear a chama de pavor que sua narrativa inflamara até mesmo em um espartano. Para sua decepção, Dienekes olhava-o com um desprendimento indiferente, quase entediado. — Ótimo — disse ele. — Combateremos à sombra.

The artist is grounded in freedom. He is not afraid of it. He is lucky. He was born in the right place. He has a core of self- confidence, of hope for the future. He believes in progress and evolution. His faith is that humankind is advancing, however haltingly and imperfectly, toward a better world.

Resistance only obstructs movement from a lower sphere to a higher. It kicks in when we seek to pursue a calling in the arts. It won't come in when you work with mother Teresa. It will give you a free pass. It is especially most powerful near the finish line.

Don't cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you've got.

All addictions share, among others, two primary qualities. 1. They embody repetition without progress. 2. They produce incapacity as a payoff.

The moment a person learns he's got terminal cancer, a profound shift takes place in his psyche. At one stroke in the doctor's office he becomes aware of what really matters to him. Things that sixty seconds earlier had seemed all- important suddenly appear meaningless, while people and concerns that he had till then dismissed at once take on supreme importance.

Resistance knows we're about to beat it and it hits the panic button. It hits with everything it's got.

Often couples or close friends, even entire families, will enter into tacit compacts whereby each individual pledges (unconsciously) to remain mired in the same slough in which she and all her cronies have become so comfortable.

evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

I have conquered the need to conquer the world

The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her. Her artistic self contains many works and many performances. Already the next is percolating inside her. The next will be better, and the one after that better still. The

Achilles is no ancestor, nine hundred years gone. He strides here, this instant, in my heart.

Procrastination is the most common manifestation of resistance.

She has proven she has guts. Does it matter that, alone at a traffic light, our passionate dreamer finds herself breaking down in tears? Does it make a difference that she's terrified of the choice she has made, that she has to fight off nightly the overwhelming urge to pack up and go home? All that matters is that she has taken action. She is here. She has left there behind. This does not go unnoticed, by mortals or by the gods.

The virtues of resourcefulness, self-composure, patience, hardiness, not to mention a sense of humour, were prized as highly as those of bravery, aggressiveness, and raw martial rigour.

What are you, crazy, Steve? Do you imagine anybody is gonna be interested in these lame-ass stories from your life? They are so ordinary! You are so ordinary. Readers are going to laugh you off the page. Whatever credibility you've built up over the years will go straight into the toilet. Stop right now before you totally humiliate yourself!

The Band advances to the cadence of the flute, and has no call for retreat. Its code is Stand and Die.