Top 380 Steven Pressfield Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Start before you’re ready.”

— Steven Pressfield

2. “The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.”

— Steven Pressfield

3. “Art is a war – between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior.”

— Steven Pressfield

4. “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.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

6. “Start before you’re ready. Good things happen when we start before we’re ready.”

— Steven Pressfield

7. “Put your ass where your heart wants to be.”

— Steven Pressfield

8. “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

9. “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

10. “Figure out what scares you the most and do that first.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

12. “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.”

— Steven Pressfield

13. “The essence of professionalism is the focus upon the work and its demands, while we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else.”

— Steven Pressfield

14. “Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.”

— Steven Pressfield

15. “Resistance is greatest just before the finish line.”

— Steven Pressfield

16. “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

18. “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

19. “On the field of The Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.”

— Steven Pressfield

20. “When we turn pro we stop running from our fears. We turn around and face them.”

— Steven Pressfield

21. “The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones.”

— Steven Pressfield

22. “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

23. “Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.”

— Steven Pressfield

24. “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

25. “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

26. “We show up. We do our best. Good things happen.”

— Steven Pressfield

27. “Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.”

— Steven Pressfield

28. “Don’t wait for someone else to validate you. Validate yourself.”

— Steven Pressfield

29. “It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.”

— Steven Pressfield

30. “Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.”

— Steven Pressfield

31. “The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

— Steven Pressfield

32. “Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.”

— Steven Pressfield

33. “Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.”

— Steven Pressfield

34. “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

35. “Be too dumb to quit and too stubborn to back off.”

— Steven Pressfield

36. “The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.”

— Steven Pressfield

37. “Slay that dragon once, and he will never have power over you again.”

— Steven Pressfield

38. “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.”

— Steven Pressfield

39. “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.”

— Steven Pressfield

40. “What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead.”

— Steven Pressfield

41. “The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.”

— Steven Pressfield

42. “It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”

— Steven Pressfield

43. “As resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.”

— Steven Pressfield

44. “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

45. “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

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

— Steven Pressfield

47. “Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn’t just skills like computer technology. It’s the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.”

— Steven Pressfield

48. “You don’t need to take a course or buy a product. All you have to do is change your mind.”

— Steven Pressfield

49. “Thr principle of organization is built into nature. Chaos itself is self-organizing. Out of primordial disorder, stars find their orbit; rivers make their way to the sea.”

— Steven Pressfield

50. “Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill.”

— Steven Pressfield