Make your superiors feel secure and important. Showing off your talents may trigger envy and resentment. Instead, make them feel like your success reflects their greatness.

Never Outshine the Master

“The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.”

Words can reveal too much and weaken your position. Speak less to appear mysterious and powerful. Let others fill in the gaps, often imagining more than you intended.

Always Say Less Than Necessary

“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.”

“Be wary of friends—they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy.”

Dependence equals control. Become indispensable by offering value no one else can provide. Once others need you, their freedom to oppose you disappears.

Make People Depend on You

Half-measures invite revenge. Eliminate threats entirely to ensure they can’t rebuild and strike back later. Mercy is dangerous when dealing with enemies.

Crush Your Enemy Completely No

Work smarter, not harder. Use others’ expertise and energy while claiming credit for the results. Delegation frees you to focus on strategy.

Get Others to Do the Work for You

Visibility is power. Be bold and dramatic to draw eyes to you. Even negative attention can work in your favor if it keeps you in the spotlight.

Court Attention at All Costs

Reputation is your strongest asset. Defend it aggressively and attack any threats before they take root. A strong reputation grants leverage even in the absence of strength.

Guard Your Reputation Fiercely

Keep people guessing. If others can’t predict your motives, they can’t prepare defenses. Misdirection keeps you in control and maintains the upper hand.

Conceal Your Intentions

Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power” offers timeless strategies for influence and dominance. Use them to rise, defend yourself, or decode the motives of those who seek power over you. Master the game or risk being played.

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.   Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Robert Greene is an American author of books on strategy, power, and seduction. He has written six international bestsellers, including The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature.

BALTASAR GRACIÁN

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