Steven Pressfield Quotes

We must dissent from the fear.

They can't hurt me. Sure, they can crush you and kill you. They can lay you out on 42nd and Broadway and put hoses on you and flush you in the sewers and put you on the subway and carry you out to Coney island and bury you on the Ferris wheel. But I refuse to sit here and worry about dying.

That is the ultimate power, to stare death in the face and be unafraid.

I love revolutionaries who have the courage to stand up against the status quo. They're always misunderstood, but they're the ones who are standing up for human rights.

Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight.

I hope I don't have to buck the system. But if it requires bucking, I will do it.

If I get incensed about some injustice, you can't make me - I will not just going to sit at my desk, at my computer all the time. I - I might want to march out on that.

Nonviolent action does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences.

Acceptance does not mean that you placidly acquiesce to the myriad injustices that are all around you. In fact, that you are incensed about these injustices is the very reason you need to try your level best to 'right' these 'wrongs.'

I'm willing to throw my body in front of the bus to stop bad ideas.

The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence.

I want every American to stand up for his rights, even if he has to sit down for them.

Speaking truth to power is never going to be easy.

There's always something heroic and romantic about taking a stand against the powers that be.

The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over, and people are standing up.

Rosa Parks inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble... good trouble, necessary trouble.

If I can, in any way, give people the courage to say, 'Actually, no, the nonsense stops right here,' then I want to be a part of doing that. Especially if that means that our folks will be more free.

I think of protest as confrontation and disruption, as the end of silence.

When death captures me," the boy vowed, "he will feel my fist in his face." (31.26)

I think that any time a person comes face-to-face with their own mortality - close enough to Death that they can smell its breath - they have a choice: 1) Fall to pieces; 2) Reassemble yourself and keep walking.

Staring into the dragon's maw, one quickly learns wisdom.

I would say you have to fight in the life of the mind as well as fight in the streets, as well as fight in the courts, as well as fight in congress and the White House. Every site is a sight of contestation.

Do not submit. It is extremely critical that repression be met full head-on and that it be resisted with every fiber in our being. There is just absolutely no compromise that can be made with it.

I have to keep facing the darkness. If I stand tall and face the thing I fear, I have a chance to conquer it. If I just keep dodging and hiding it will conquer me.