Quotes from Steven Pressfield

Seems he never learns there's such a thing as a critter that might just keep comin' on. So we'll find 'em in the end, I promise you that. Just as sure as the turning of the earth.

The Daily Show reported recently that scientists in Japan had invented a robot that is capable of recognizing its own reflection in a mirror. When the robot learns to hate what it sees, said Jon Stewart, it will have achieved full humanity.

Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North—meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.   We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.   Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

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

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. So

The pro doesn't even pick up the phone. He stays at work.

No one is born a pro. You've got to fall before you hit bottom, and sometimes that fall can be a hell of a ride.

The soul. Mother love. Courage. These are closer to God, she taught, because they alone are the same on both sides of death, in front of the curtain and behind. "When I first came

Am I hearing you right, sir?" Keeler asked. "Are you equating the swing with the soul, the Authentic Soul?" "I prefer the word Self," Bagger Vance said. "The Authentic Self. I believe this is the reason for the endless fascination of golf. The game is a metaphor for the soul's search for its true ground and identity.

All three of these paths embody one unifying principle," Vance said. We were now approaching the eighteenth green. "That of surrender. Surrender of the Little Mind to the Big Mind, surrender of the personal ego to the greater wisdom of the Self.

The Ego produces Resistance and attacks the awakening artist.

Resistance feeds on fear. We experience Resistance as fear. But fear of what? Fear

I read R.D. Laing, I read Victor Frankl. Anything by Ken Kesey or Peter Matthiessen, Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, R. Crumb, Bob Dylan. These sacred texts are passed from one hand to another like relics of a religious past or harbingers of a new faith.

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember

first hole at Prestwick in Scotland; the wind was howling out of the left. I started an eight-iron thirty yards to windward, but the gale caught it; I watched in dismay as the ball sailed hard right, hit the green going sideways, and bounded off into the cabbage. Sonofabitch! I turned to our caddie. Did you see the wind take that shot!? He gave that look that only Scottish caddies can give. Well, ye've got t' play th' wind now

Men's pain is lightly borne and swiftly over. Our wounds are of the flesh, which is nothing; women's is of the heart—sorrow unending, far more bitter to bear.

We become friends instantly. I simply gravitate to him. Tony is the first person I've ever met who actually possesses self-discipline. I have never encountered this before. Other individuals I've admired for their focus and commitment have jobs or are in the military. They adhere to their institution's norms and protocols. That's discipline, but it's not self-discipline. It's externally imposed, not generated from within.

individuo verdaderamente libre es solo libre en la medida en que se controla a sí mismo. Mientras que aquellos que no se saben gobernar están condenados a encontrar quién los gobierne.

What is a tramp anyway? Dave explained: A tramp is an itinerant worker. A hobo is an itinerant non-worker. A bum is a non-itinerant non-worker.

The more important a call to action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel about answering it. But to yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

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

I guess what I want to say to us artists and entrepreneurs is that conventional yardsticks of success don't apply to all enterprises. Labors of love count.

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.

Are you paralyzed with fear? That's a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.