Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.
Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?
What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead.
Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.
Playing for money, or adopting the attitude of one who plays for money, lowers the fever.
Writers think in metaphors. Editors work in metaphors. A great reader reads in metaphors.
You don't need to take a course or buy a product. All you have to do is change your mind.
A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.
The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.
Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.
The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.
When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.
Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?
We will have to choose between the life we want for our future and the life we have left behind.
We feed it [Resistance] with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.
You have never tasted freedom, friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.
On the field of The Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.
A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.
The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.
When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us... Ideas come. Insights accrete.
To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.
...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.
The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals.
Most of us have two lives: the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
We cannot let external criticism, even if it's true, fortify our internal foe. That foe is strong enough already.
When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.
Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.
Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.
When we sit down to work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.
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.
Persian envoy "our arrows will black out the sun..." Dienekes of the Spartans.."Good, then we'll fight in the shade.
Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.
We're wrong if we think we're the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.
A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center.
The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.
You are a writer when you tell yourself you are. No one else's opinion matters. Screw them. You are when you say you are.
I had always been an enthusiastic reader of stuff about ancient Greece. I would read Herodotus and Thucydides just for fun.
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.
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.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
The essence of professionalism is the focus upon the work and its demands, while we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else.
I knew I wanted to write novels, but I could not finish what I started. The closer I got, the more ways I'd find to screw it up.
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.
If we were born to overthrow the order of ignorance and injustice of the world, it’s our job to realize it and get down to business.
Don't prepare, do. Don't let Resistance sucker you into wasting months on background, foundation, planning. All that can come later.