Quotes from Steven Pressfield

nothing can alter the fact that beneath the fascist insignia of their uniforms, these men are fathers, husbands, sons. I

In defeat one learns who are friends to him, and by whom he is accounted friend.

The inner critic? His ass is not permitted in the building.

End first, then beginning and middle. That's your startup, that's your plan for competing in a triathlon, that's your ballet.

Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling. A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center. It is our soul's seat, the vessel that holds our being-in-potential, our star's beacon and Polaris.

Chatter is your mother and father's well-intentioned expressions of caution, seeking to shield you from hurting yourself. Chatter is your teachers' equally well-meaning attempts at socialization, training you to follow the rules. Chatter is your friends' regular-Joe buddy-talk, trying to make you like them and follow the rules of the pack. Chatter is Resistance.

We can never eliminate Resistance. It will never go away. But we can outsmart it, and we can enlist allies that are as powerful as it is. One thing we can never, never permit ourselves to do is to take Resistance lightly, to underestimate it or to fail to take it into account.

On realising that he is not a born warrior, as the rest of his troop are): A cherished self-conception must be given up, and one feels diminished by it. This is mistaken, however. A person discovers that he has been made stronger by the jettisoning of this sham and disadvantageous bag-gage. In fact, he has become more "himself," by aligning his self-concept more closely with fact.

Any project or enterprise can be broken down into beginning, middle, and end. Fill in the gaps; then fill in the gaps between the gaps.

You have never tasted freedom, friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.

Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him.

Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional, crazy heart. If your notion violates every precept I've set forth in these pages, tell me to go to hell. Do what that voice says.