Steven Pressfield Quotes

The worst education which teaches self-denial, is better than the best which teaches everything else, and not that.

True victory is victory over oneself.

Discipline to me is sacrifice; it's willingness to give up something you want to do, so you can better yourself.

The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say - or their beliefs - or sex.

Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great. To many people, being nice in order to be liked is more important. There's equal merit in that, but you must not confuse being good with being liked.

There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

America needs young people to be inspired to choose sacrifice over greed.

Kids will come into my boxing gym with no discipline, and then you teach them how to focus and love what they're doing, which then travels outside into their home and work life.

I know there are actors we all want to beat up a little. I think it's important to do whatever it takes, and whatever it takes sometimes involves some physical or mental discipline. There's a lot at stake.

The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.

I have been taught by experience, and never hesitate to sacrifice personal feeling to the requirements of the hour.

Read some good, heavy, serious books just for discipline: Take yourself in hand and master yourself.

At our house we have come to conclude that building and strengthening character will require extreme measures and the intentional pursuit of gritty work experiences.

It's like a muscle - if you stop going to the gym or stop running, you get weak. The military teaches you these great values, but we don't keep up the discipline on our own, and we lose it. So wherever you go, keep that discipline up.

Make yourself do unpleasant things so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.

I have learned that I really do have discipline, self-control, and patience. But they were given to me as a seed, and it's up to me to choose to develop them.

Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.

If you are striving to have more happiness in your life, it helps to guide your mind towards starting to recognize what are selfish motivations and what are constructive motivations.

Boot camp was the first time I got a heavy dose of discipline. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I have a talent for coming up with an analogy about martial arts training for everything. It's because training to improve your martial arts skills and training to step into a cage and fight another person teaches you a lot about... everything.

When I first started training, my trainer told me to stop smiling so much. It was just fun to me. I couldn't help it.

I would be a very different person without karate.

I have high expectations for myself - as an athlete, as a man, as an individual - and wrestling has helped me build a lot of character knowing that I have to remain humble but also fight complacency.