Turning pro is like kicking a drug habit or stopping drinking. It's a decision, a decision to which we must re-commit every day.
To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence.
This is what I feared for Michael. That his generation, so strong, so well made, so bright and aware beyond its years, would compare itself to us in envy, envy of the clarity of our challenges and the...
The writer is an infantryman. He knows that progress is measured in yards of dirt extracted from the enemy one day, one hour, one minute at a time and paid for in blood. The artist wears combat boots....
The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it. He
The professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when...
The payoff of living in the past or the future is you never have to do your work in the present.
The payoff for a life of adversity is freedom.
The opposite of fear, Dienekes said, is love.
The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed. Never forget: This very moment, we can change our...
The artist and the fundamentalist arise from societies at differing stages of development. The artist is the advanced model. His culture possesses affluence, stability, enough excess of resource to pe...
The amateur dreads becoming who she really is because she fears that this new person will be judged by others as different. The tribe will declare us weird or queer or crazy. The tribe will reject us....
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 Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.
The American people... have had enough of sacrificing their sons and daughters in the name of some illusory world order; they want someone else’s sons and daughters to bear the burden. The American pe...
THE HUMAN CONDITION The Daily Show reported recently that scientists in Japan had invented a robot that is capable of recognizing its own reflection in a mirror. When the robot learns to hate what it...
Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional, crazy heart.
Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. I write only when inspiration strikes, he replied. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clo...
Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern ov...
Persian envoy our arrows will black out the sun... Dienekes of the Spartans..Good, then we'll fight in the shade.