The Virtues of War Quotes

“A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“This man has conquered the world! What have you done?"
The philosopher replied without an instant's hesitation, "I have conquered the need to conquer the world.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Always attack. Even in defense, attack. The attacking arm possesses the
initiative and thus commands the action. To attack makes men brave; to defend
makes them timorous.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Warfare is theatre, I have said, and the essence of theatre is aritifce. What we show, we will not do. What we don't show, we will do.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Fame Imperishable and glory that will never die -- that is what we march for!”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“When deliberating, think in campaigns and not battles; in wars and not
campaigns; in ultimate conquest and not wars.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be allowed to know this.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“From that day, I vowed never to squander a moment's care over the good opinion of others. May they rot in hell. You have heard of my abstemiousness in matters of food and sex. Here is why: I punished myself. If I caught my thoughts straying to another's opinion of me, I sent myself to bed without supper. As for women, I likewise permitted myself none. I missed no few meals, and no small pleasure, before I brought this vice under control.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Every virtue that reaches the exaggeration, is becoming a defect”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Why does Zeus send prodigies to earth? For the same reason he makes a comet streak across the sky. To show not what has been done, but what can be.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“I have always been a soldier. I have known no other life. The calling of arms, I have followed from boyhood. I have never sought another.

I have known lovers, sired offspring, competed in games, and committed outrages when drunk. I have vanquished empires, yoked continents, been crowned as an immortal before gods and men. But always I have been a soldier.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“He's a sturdy fellow, bald as a hen's egg, and like all engineers, practical as a pensioner.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“You have asked, Itanes, if I feel fear. I answer, I may not. The soldier in the line is permitted to feel terror; the commander never. Too much depends upon him - the lives of his mates, the fate of the action. He cannot allow himself the luxury of fear. I eat mine, as a lion devours a kid. I consume it by my will to glory and my obligation to the corps.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Those who do not understand war believe it contention between armies, friend against foe. No. Rather friend and foe duel as one against an unseen antagonist, whose name is Fear, and seek, even entwined in death, to mount to that promontory whose ensign is honor.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Men feared even the shade of Alexander, lest they encounter him again beneath the earth, for surely in that world, too, none would surpass him.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“The ordeal of command consists in this: that one makes decisions of fatal consequence based on ludicrously inadequate intelligence.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“Achilles is no ancestor, nine hundred years gone. He strides here, this instant, in my heart.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“swear to you, friends, by all the gods, he seems to me
happier in doing us kindnesses than in enriching himself.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“the ordeal had been rendered tolerable, now that I could tell myself it was my own idea.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“My father used to say that attacking an enemy who outnumbers you is like wrestling with a bear: You have to get your dagger into his heart before the beast crushes you with his paws.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War

“The Band advances to the cadence of the flute, and has no call for retreat. Its code is Stand and Die.”
― Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War