Top 380 Steven Pressfield Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “Bhagavad-Gita tells us we have a right only to our labor, not to the fruits of our labor.”

— Steven Pressfield

102. “I believe in previous lives and the Muse – and that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists.”

— Steven Pressfield

103. “I’m superstitious. I keep mum while I’m working on something.”

— Steven Pressfield

104. “All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance.”

— Steven Pressfield

105. “We need to ascend beyond our own petty Resistance, our own negative self-judgment and self-sabotage, our own “I’m not worthy” mind-set.”

— Steven Pressfield

106. “Have you ever wondered why the slang terms for intoxication are so demolition-oriented? Stoned, smashed, hammered. It’s because they’re talking about the Ego. It’s the Ego that gets blasted, waxed, plastered.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

108. “Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.”

— Steven Pressfield

109. “In other words, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term grown, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our high nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.”

— Steven Pressfield

110. “The last thing we want is to remain as we are.”

— Steven Pressfield

111. “What does Resistance feel like? First, unhappiness. We feel like hell. A low-grade misery pervades everything. We’re bored, we’re restless. We can’t get no satisfaction. There’s guilt but we can’t put our finger on the source. We want to go back to bed; we want to get up and party. We feel unloved and unlovable. We’re disgusted. We hate our lives. We hate ourselves. Unalleviated, Resistance mounts to a pitch that becomes unendurable. At this point vices kick in. Dope, adultery, web surfing.”

— Steven Pressfield

112. “The Warrior Ethos evolved to counter the instinct of self-preservation.”

— Steven Pressfield

113. “The hero wanders, the hero suffers, the hero returns. You are that hero.”

— Steven Pressfield

114. “Seeking support from friends and and family is like having people gathered around at your deathbed. It’s nice, but when the ship sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.”

— Steven Pressfield

115. “Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.”

— Steven Pressfield

116. “Habit will be your champion. When you train the mind to think one way and one way only, when you refuse to allow it to think in another, that will produce great strength in battle.”

— Steven Pressfield

117. “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful; honor and recognition in case of success.”

— Steven Pressfield

118. “The more important an activity is to your soul’s evolution, the more you will feel resistance to it.”

— Steven Pressfield

119. “Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.”

— Steven Pressfield

120. “Playing the game for money produces the proper professional attitude. It inculcates the lunch-pail state of mind that shows up for work despite rain or snow or dark of night and slugs it out day after day.”

— Steven Pressfield

121. “It is a commonplace among artists and children at play that they’re not aware of time or solitude while they’re chasing their vision. The hours fly. The sculptress and the tree-climbing tyke both look up blinking when Mom calls, ‘Suppertime!’”

— Steven Pressfield

122. “The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself. Is he scared? Hell, yes. He’s petrified.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

124. “There’s no mystery to turning pro. It’s a decision brought about by an act of will. We make up our minds to view ourselves as pros and we do it. Simple as that.”

— Steven Pressfield

125. “Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop.”

— Steven Pressfield

126. “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.”

— Steven Pressfield

127. “Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt.”

— Steven Pressfield

128. “Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it’s for failure.”

— Steven Pressfield

129. “Resistance is implacable, intractable, indefatigable.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

132. “Artists are modest. They know they’re not doing the work; they’re just taking dictation.”

— Steven Pressfield

133. “How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance.”

— Steven Pressfield

134. “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

135. “Depression and anxiety may be real. But they can also be Resistance. When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul’s call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We’re doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification and hard work, we simply consume a product. Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.”

— Steven Pressfield

136. “Playing for money, or adopting the attitude of one who plays for money, lowers the fever.”

— Steven Pressfield

137. “The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness. The Ego hates this. Because the more awake we become, the less we need the Ego.”

— Steven Pressfield

138. “Dienekes says the mind is like a house with many rooms,” he said. “There are rooms one must not go into. To anticipate one’s death is one of those rooms. We must not allow ourselves even to think it.”

— Steven Pressfield

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

— Steven Pressfield

140. “Making a judgment, taking a stand and then acting against an injustice or acting to support excellence is the stuff of the everyman hero. If you are an aspiring artist and you wish to avoid “judgments,” you’ll find that you have nothing to say.”

— Steven Pressfield

141. “The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.”

— Steven Pressfield

142. “Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.”

— Steven Pressfield

143. “The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.”

— Steven Pressfield

144. “The professional respects his craft. He does not consider himself superior to it. He recognizes the contributions of those who have gone before him. He apprentices himself to them.”

— Steven Pressfield

145. “It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.”

— Steven Pressfield

146. “The professional does not permit himself to become hidebound within one incarnation, however comfortable or successful. Like a transmigrating soul, he shucks his outworn body and dons a new one. He continues his journey.”

— Steven Pressfield

147. “The sure sign of an amateur is he has a million plans and they all start tomorrow.”

— Steven Pressfield

148. “When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us .”

— Steven Pressfield

149. “When we’re living as amateurs, we’re running away from our calling – meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves.”

— Steven Pressfield

150. “The professional cannot take rejection personally because to do so reinforces Resistance. Editors are not the enemy; critics are not the enemy. Resistance is the enemy. The battle is inside our own heads. We cannot let external criticism, even if it’s true, fortify our internal foe. That foe is strong enough already.”

— Steven Pressfield