The War of Art
"The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield explores the internal battles that creatives face when pursuing their art. It identifies "Resistance" as the primary force that hinders individuals from fulfilling their potential and offers strategies to overcome it. The book serves as a motivational guide for artists, writers, and anyone striving to achieve their goals against self-doubt and procrastination.
15 curated highlights from this book
Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most impactful passages and quotes from The War of Art, carefully selected to capture the essence of the book.
Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.
The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.
The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He doesn’t take the easy way out.
We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.
The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, in a way.
It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that that is what we have to do.
Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt.
The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome.
The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. It is invisible. It is a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, prevent us from doing our work.
The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He doesn’t wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.
Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.