1984 By George Orwell - 30 Quotes

1. “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

2. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

3. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

4. “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.”

5. “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”

6. “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

7. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”

8. “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.”

9. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

10. “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

11 . “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

12. “It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another.”

13. “It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.”

14. “Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”

15. “But if there was hope, it lay in the proles. You had to cling on to that. When you put it in words it sounded reasonable: it was when you looked at the human beings passing you on the pavement that it became an act of faith.”

16. “If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones.”

17. “When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you’re happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?”

18. “To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one’s lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available.”

19. “Talking to her, he realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. (Continues next slide)

By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”

19. (Continued

20 . “The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.”

21. “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

22. “There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

23. “Sanity is not statistical.”

24. “Where there is equality, there can be sanity.”

25. “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

26. “What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?”

27. “Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever… And remember that it is for ever. The face will always be there to be stamped upon.”

28. “Merely to be alone, not to be beaten or questioned, to have enough to eat, and to be clean all over, was completely satisfying.”

29. “‘If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens. … It doesn’t really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination.’ … What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.”

30. “To die hating them, that was freedom.”

1984 by George Orwell - 30 Important Lines

Looking for the best quotes from 1984 by George Orwell? Here's our list of the 30 most popular & important lines from this classic.

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1984 Quotes: The 30 Best & Most Important Lines From George Orwell's Masterpiece

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984">1984 </a>is the story of a man questioning the system that keeps his futuristic but dystopian society afloat and the chaos that quickly ensues once he gives in to his natural curiosity and desire to be free.

1984 - Book Summary 

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."-George Orwell

Author Quote

“The best books are those that tell you what you know already,” Winston Smith concludes as he finally leafs through the pages of a forbidden book he’d been dying to get his hands on. In that sense, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984">1984 </a>  by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell </a>is indeed a great book: Most of us know the word “totalitarian” indicates something bad, but only after reading a dystopian classic like this will we truly understand what an absolute government might look like in practice.

Book Overview 

Orwell had been an Imperial policeman in Burma (modern-day Myanmar) and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He later worked as a journalist during World War II. As such, he had seen the terrifying impact of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-authoritarian-moment-summary/">governments with complete control </a>both first- and second-hand in Spain, Russia, and Germany.

Published in 1949, 1984 was his warning to Western nations not to succumb to then-popular communist ideas. Despite leaning more left than right himself, Orwell feared <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-road-to-serfdom-summary/">unquestioned socialism </a>would, ultimately, escalate into a government practicing systematic oppression — and could do so within the next 35 years.

The book has since become an often-quoted literary classic, taught in classrooms around the world. It is routinely praised for its important themes, strong symbolism, and, in some cases, accurate vision.

<ol><li>The most powerful way to either control or empower humans is language. </li><li>Freedom is the ability to say what’s true, to say what you think, and to make your own choices. </li><li>Totalitarian governments succeed when they turn off our individuality via gaslighting. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Lessons 

The book is structured into three parts, and in the first, we get to know the protagonist Winston Smith. At nearly 40 years old and in bad physical shape, Winston is somewhat of an anti-hero. He works in the Ministry of Truth in London, which is part of Oceania, one of three large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstate">superstates </a>, who are constantly at war with one another.

Lesson 1: Language is the defining

Winston’s job at the record department is to, ironically, falsify historic records. The goal is to erase everything that contradicts or makes “the Party,” the governing political power, look bad. Originals are burned in giant furnaces, and every newspaper article gets rewritten every time the Party decides a new reality is in order.

One of Winston’s colleagues works on the Party’s latest edition of the “Newspeak” dictionary. Newspeak is a language devised specifically to eliminate rebellious thinking at the root. Think about it: If you didn’t have the vocabulary to express an idea, wouldn’t that also make you less likely to think of that idea in the first place?

For example, if the word “freedom” was erased from the English language, would Americans still understand it <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/on-liberty-summary/">the way it was meant in the Constitution? </a>In the book, the word “free” still exists, but by means of deleting many other words associated with it, future “Newspeakers” would only be able to use it “in such statements as ‘This dog is free from lice.'” Political or intellectual freedom “no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.”

The <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/through-the-language-glass-summary/">form of language </a>shapes how we can express ourselves, and how we can express ourselves shapes how and what we think. Therefore, language may be the single-most important way to either empower or enslave humans. This concept is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity">linguistic relativity </a>. It’s a little overstated, but in a way, “if you have no means of saying it, you can’t think it.”

“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought,” Winston notes at one point. Cherish your words, and be mindful of them.

Besides altering language and falsifying history, the Party also controls its citizens via more direct means. For one, everyone could be a spy, and children regularly report their parents to “the Thought Police,” a sort of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo">Gestapo </a>which makes inconvenient people vanish at a moment’s notice. Another theme in the book is <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/permanent-record-summary/">using technology to practice mass surveillance </a>. Every home has a “telescreen,” a monitor that’s both recording and broadcasting at all times, and there are cameras and microphones everywhere.

Lesson 2: Freedom means being able to say what’s true

In a society like that, rebellion starts with little acts, such as Winston writing into a diary in a corner of his apartment that’s hidden from the screen. In the second part of the book, however, he takes his disobedience to the next level by starting an affair with Julia, a coworker.

At first, Winston thinks Julia is a spy, but when she gives him a love note, the two begin meeting in secret, sleeping together, and commiserating about how much they hate the Party. There is, however, one key difference between them: Julia has no interest in overthrowing the Party. “If you keep the small rules you can break the big ones,” she observes, and as long as she can do what she wants right under the Party’s nose, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-courage-to-be-happy-summary/">she is happy </a>.

Winston, however, more desperately wishes for a better future — not that he could do much to bring one about. Julia’s definition of freedom begins and ends with her choices, whereas Winston thinks freedom also means being able to think and say what is true and what you truly believe. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows,” he writes into his diary. “To die hating them,” the Party, that is, “that was freedom.”

If a government allows its citizens limited means to form an identity and actualize themselves, its people still isn’t free. Freedom includes permission to speak both facts and lies, to say what you think irrespective of whether it is right or wrong, and without these freedoms, all the others mean significantly less.

In 2020, just as the pandemic came into full force, Julio Vincent Gambuto told us to “<a href="https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0">prepare for the ultimate gaslighting </a>.” “Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we ‘open back up’ and move forward, very powerful forces will try to convince us all to get back to normal.” Of course, normal had disappeared, Gambuto warned. The future would — and probably should — look very different, but if we let greedy, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/brandwashed-summary/">marketing-savvy corporations </a> steamroll us yet again, we’d gain nothing from the great pause we had been given.

Lesson 3: A totalitarian state wins when it can gaslight

In this case, the evil Gambuto referred to was consumerism, but gaslighting, <a href="https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/255554">defined as </a>“manipulating someone using psychological methods into questioning their own sanity or powers of reasoning,” is also what totalitarian governments use to bend citizens to their will.

Just before, in the last part of the book, the inevitable happens — Winston and Julia get caught by the Thought Police — Winston concludes that “sanity is not statistical.” What he means is that “there is truth and there is untruth, and if you cling to the truth even against the whole world, you are not mad.” If your government can make you think you’re mad, however, it just might get you to give up the truth in favor of a lie that’s more convenient for them. This is how totalitarian governments win: They get you to reject not just the truth but any kind of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/think-again-summary/">individual thinking </a>whatsoever.

After their capture, Winston and Julia are separated, and both are tortured into not just compliance but becoming mindless Party drones like everyone else. As it turns out, Winston’s coworker O’Brien, whom he thought to be a fellow secret rebel, is actually a high-level Inner Party member, eager to brainwash him into loyalty to the Party.

Having had little individuality to begin with due to the short material leash the state kept him on, Winston is now forced to give up his last shred of self thanks to months of physical and psychological abuse. O’Brien doesn’t just get him to lie about basic reality, such as claiming he holds up five fingers when he’s only holding up four, but also to pretend Oceania has always been at war with the same enemy when, in fact, telescreens frequently announce differing warring factions.

The ultimate gaslighting, however, happens when he makes Winston doubt reality altogether and, as such, the importance of thinking for himself: “If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens,” Winston muses. “It doesn’t really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination. What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.”

This is Winston’s final admission of defeat. After all, if the Party can rewrite history as it sees fit, it can dictate “whatever happens in all minds” and, therefore, what “truly happens.” When he returns to the real world, he is happy to drink the same gin he has always been drinking, sit at the same bar he’s always been sitting in, and no longer cares about expressing himself in any way whatsoever. Not with Julia. Nor in a diary. Not even through rebellious thoughts.

Deep down, he still knows the state propaganda is nothing but lies, but from now on, he’s happy to go along with it, no longer strong enough to resist.

When other people gaslight us, it’s annoying and sad. When our governments do it, it’s dangerous, an immediate sign to take a stand and cling to the truth with all we’ve got. Always think twice about what your government does and says. <a href="https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/character/big-brother/">Big Brother </a>is watching.

Besides the fact that it is well-structured, relatively easy to understand, and successfully relies on a few strong characters to drive its points home, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984">1984 </a> has held up incredibly well over time, and not just because of its predictive powers. If you read the book today, you’ll hardly feel transported to a different century. While Winston isn’t exactly carrying around a smartphone, the book’s everyday backdrop still feels technologically close enough to today to make it easy to immerse yourself in its world.

1984 - Book Review

All in all, this is an outstanding book with several important, cautionary messages, some of which we should heed today. What happens if news blogs change their headlines after publication? <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/an-ugly-truth-summary/">What role does misinformation play in elections? </a>Can our smartphones listen to us while we sleep? All of these are questions Winston Smith would ask were he alive in our world today. Reading his story will help us answer them.

While I would recommend this book to anyone, you’ll find it an especially great read if you’re concerned about freedom and <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-sovereign-individual-summary/">sovereignty </a>. For more context on its publication and Orwell’s ideas, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">check out Wikipedia </a>. You can also dive into <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/1984-quotes/">our list of the best and most important quotes from the book </a>. Final fun fact: It is one of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/jordan-peterson-books/#8_1984_by_George_Orwell_1949">the top 15 books recommended by Jordan Peterson </a>.

The 17-year-old climate activist who’s not happy with how their government is handling global warming, the 55-year-old who thinks their government will surely take care of them in retirement, and anyone who’s suspicious of technology’s long-term impact on our mental and societal health.

Who would I recommend our 1984 to?

Here's our summary of 1984, the dystopian novel and literary classic by George Orwell. Discover the plot and 3 valuable lessons.

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1984 Summary

“Some people<a href="https://list25.com/25-luckiest-people-in-the-world/"> </a>can’t believe in themselves until someone else believes in them first.”

“Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or <a href="https://list25.com/25-easiest-languages-you-could-be-learning-today/">learn </a>from it.”

“No one ever made a difference<a href="https://list25.com/25-crazy-differences-between-the-harry-potter-movies-and-books/"> </a>by being like everybody else.”

“Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming<a href="https://list25.com/25-best-places-for-swimming-in-the-world/"> </a>, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.”

To encourage in whatever you do and wherever you are in life, we present to you these 25 inspirational movie quotes that could change your life.

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Inspirational Movie Quotes That Could Change Your Life

5 key insights from the new book, The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit

We all lie, all the time—including you. Human deception is no different from its animal equivalent of camouflage, spots, and stripes. Charm is our very own version of frilly fins and peacock feathers. Like a stick insect adapted to hide among twigs, the effort to deceive, from camouflage to creative bullshit, is an evolutionary arms race as old as organic life.

1. You’re a natural-born liar.

Trickery is fundamental to interaction, and the instinct to misrepresent objective reality to suit our needs is fundamental to communication. In the evolution of deceit, language only came about quite recently, billions of years after more basic and more effective tools of the con. In fact, humans may have developed language specifically to manipulate each other in new and cleverer ways; it’s just the latest innovation in a billion-year-old chess game.

As Rutgers Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences Robert Trivers put it, “Our most prized possession, language, not only strengthens our ability to lie, but greatly extends its range.” Consider that when you lie with your scent, your pattern, or your petals, you can only lie about what you are, here and now. But lie with words, and you can lie about anything, anyone, anywhere; you can rewrite facts past, present, and future. In other words, human speech allows deceptions to transcend space and time. Dishonesty is truly a feature, not a bug, of our nature.

Jefferson Randolph Smith was a con man who set up the first telegraph office out of Skagway, Alaska. For the price of five dollars, settlers, frontiersmen, and prospectors could send a telegraph message to anyone in the United States. Unsurprisingly, there were lines around the building every day. It was great business—even though the first telegraph wires didn’t actually arrive in Alaska until two years later.

People lined up and paid for over a year to send important messages that went as far as the wall of Smith’s office. So why were people so ready to believe that Smith could send out telegrams just because he said so?

In the absence of evidence, humans tend to believe that whatever we’re presented with is true—be it someone’s name, a random fact, a complex explanation, even something as obvious as the presence of a physical object we see Neurologists refer to this tendency as the “honesty bias,” and it’s how we know almost everything that we know. It’s because of your honesty bias that you don’t automatically wonder if a lamp is a hallucination that only you can see, or suspect that everyone you meet might be lying about their name. If we didn’t lean toward this neurological shortcut, we’d all go insane.

It’s also the single adaptation that has allowed humans to develop speech, literacy, history, science, and civilization itself. You don’t have to discover, confirm, or even understand every fact or idea you learn, because you are biased to just accept them as true and keep climbing. This is the mechanism behind our species’ collective intelligence: To rapidly acquire another’s lifetime of experience or problem-solving for ourselves, all we need to do is ask—and then trust the answer.

So in the long run, we benefit more from the honesty bias than we risk in being overly trusting. Our honesty bias may be exploitable, but it’s also indispensable.

Seeing may be believing, but it really shouldn’t be. Your brain doesn’t actually have the processing power to deal with all of the sensory data available at every second—so, like all gamblers, it cheats. As a result, we often end up seeing what we expect to see.Take shell games; everybody falls for sleight of hand because it exploits several loopholes in perceptual cognition, the ways in which your brain processes and interprets input from your senses. In other words, if you have a normally functioning brain, you literally can’t not fall for it.

3. Lies take advantage of the way we perceive—and construct—reality.

Your visual cortex—the part of the brain that processes electrical signals from the retina and turns them into images in your mind—functions with a 0.1-second delay. So you can’t believe your eyes, because while your eyes may work, your brain is processing everything your eyes pick up about one-tenth of a second behind what’s happening.

Your brain also doesn’t have the bandwidth to process everything you see, so it fills in most of what’s around you with what it expects to be around you. It’s only when something changes radically that your brain notices, and loops back around to see what’s going on.

There are other exploitable neurological loopholes as well—for example, there’s the mirroring effect. Mirroring is when specialized cells in your brain called “mirror neurons” cause you to imitate the gesture, posture, or subtle movements of whomever you’re interacting with. Someone smiles, you smile back. Someone looks up suddenly, you look up too. You assume these are conscious choices, but they’re not—and it’s an incredibly effective way to make people look (or not look) at whatever you want.

In 1898, four Denver reporters from different newspapers went to a bar, got really drunk, and made up a story. They all claimed in their separate papers to have met a team of four American engineers on their way to China. The engineers, they said, told them that they’d been hired to destroy the Great Wall at China’s request. Supposedly this was being done as a gesture of goodwill, and as an invitation to foreign trade.

4. What matters is not if something is true, but if it is believed.

It was a multi-person hoax, and unfortunately, other newspapers picked up the story, and it went viral. Within weeks, a major east coast newspaper did an entire special Sunday spread about the fake destruction of the Great Wall, including elaborate illustrations and further exposition about the Chinese government’s historic plan to end their isolationist policy.

Because this was a respected newspaper, the story quickly spread to Europe, then to Asia, and finally to China, where political tempers were already running high. In fact, this fiction allegedly contributed to the Boxer Rebellion, a destabilizing and violent disaster that hastened the decline of the Qing Dynasty.

The point of this story is not that a single fake news story may have radically altered the course of 20th-century Chinese history—though it did—it’s that the Boxer Rebellion occurred just as it would have had the news been real. The cause may have been fictitious, but it had the same effect as its truthful parallel.

Reality, in other words, is circumstantial. In the greater scheme of things, it matters less whether or not a thing is actually true, but rather whether or not it is believed to be so.

If a whole civilization believes certain objects have power or value, and everyone behaves accordingly, then for all intents and purposes, they do possess that value or power. It may be a lie, but a quality counterfeit object still works precisely the same way the real object would—for exactly as long as it is believed to be authentic. And if a thing only needs to be believed in to be effective, then that begs the question: Was there ever anything to value or authority other than belief in the first place?

5. Nothing is entirely real.

The rule of law, the value of diamonds, the existence of the economy—when we all agree to believe certain things, those things become real. Take paper money—it’s just paper, but as long as we all agree to believe in it together, it has value. It takes on the weight of reality.

Why we lie and how we believe are so inextricably intertwined that there can be no faith without fraud, no truth without lies, no civilization without cons. Whether they’re the lies we tell each other, or the subtler and more complicated lies we tell ourselves, deceit and belief are two halves of one whole. One can’t exist without the other, and society can’t function without both.

The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit 

Scientist and historian Aja Raden untangles the complex relationship of truth to lie, belief to faith, and deception to propaganda.

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The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56756745-the-daily-laws">The Daily Laws </a> is a page-a-day, calendar-style book covering the three big topics of mastery, power, and emotions, sharing Robert Greene’s best lessons from 20 years of research of the dynamics within and between humans.

The Daily Laws - Book Summary 

"Embrace your strangeness. Identify what makes you different. Fuse those things together and become an anomaly."-Robert Green

Author Quote 

If your son had worked some 60 odd jobs by the time he was 36, would you write him off as a lost cause? It’s a brutal question, but it’s hard to imagine any parent wouldn’t at least be deeply worried. And yet, in <a href="https://powerseductionandwar.com/">Robert Greene’s </a>case, everything ultimately turned out more than just fine.

After what can only be called “a rough start” — and that’s an extreme understatement — Greene has now published multiple million-copy bestsellers. After researching the dynamics within and between humans for more than 20 years, he decided to curate the best of his many “laws” from <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/robert-greene-books/">his books </a>. The result is <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56756745-the-daily-laws">The Daily Laws </a>, a 366-page compendium with short, daily life lessons.

The book is structured like a calendar, but the months are sub-grouped into three major sections. Here’s a lesson from one of each of them: <ol><li>Mastery is a lifelong journey, not a destination we arrive at. </li><li>The game of power is always on, and there are only 3 ways to react to it. </li><li>Avoid tactical hell by zooming out regularly in all kinds of life scenarios. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Ideas 

Over the first three months, the book deals with mastery, about which Greene wrote <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/mastery-summary/">a book of the same name </a>. Going back to his own journey to becoming a writer, Greene had loved words since he was a child, but a career in journalism didn’t pan out, and so he began bouncing from job to job. He kept writing on the side, however, and eventually, opportunity struck. Greene published <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-48-laws-of-power-summary/">The 48 Laws of Power </a>, a book that sold over two million copies and changed his career.

Lesson 1: Mastery is a never-ending process — it must be maintained, not attained.

If you asked him today, however, he’d still tell you he’s constantly learning. Greene believes mastery must be maintained , not attained . After discovering your “life’s task,” a process he likens to “an archaeological dig” rather than a magical revelation, you first must apprentice. Following years of mentorship, you’ll become a master — but that’s not where the journey ends.

In <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-one-thing-summary/">The One Thing </a>, Gary Keller shared a great way of looking at it: “When you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable. Mastery is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and a journey you experience.” No matter how good you are at your job, how famous you become, or how many books you sell, remember that you must always <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-practice-summary/">keep practicing </a>, learning, and growing. Mastery is a path we walk, not a destination we arrive at.

Most of Greene’s writing deals with power: how we attain and lose it, and the games people play to get and keep it. For five months, his daily laws cover various questions around power. One of the most fundamental yet important ones is that humans are always playing power games.

Lesson 2: Power is a never-ending game that’s always being played, and you can only embrace it, ignore it, or accept it.

Whether you like it or not, people want power, and so wherever humans are involved, power struggles come into play — pun intended. There are only three ways to deal with the fact that life is a never-ending game of power:

<ol><li>Embrace it . Many people love power games. Unfortunately, the <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-prince-summary/">Machiavellis </a>out there often lose their power due to corruption and being too desperate for it. </li><li>Ignore it . Others pretend power doesn’t exist or turn up their nose at anyone who gives in to a desire for status. But that’s just opting out of a game everyone else plays. You can — but you’ll also end up with no power. </li><li>Accept it . A balanced person will choose when and which power games to play. You can sit out some of them but make sure you attain power where it really matters to you, and thus live a good life. </li> </ol>

Power isn’t inherently good or bad. Like money or status, it’s just a tool. What it leads to depends on how you use it. Stay aware of the power games happening around you at all times, and then make conscious decisions about which ones you actually want to play.

“Tactical hell” is a term Greene uses for the reactive mode all of us find ourselves in from time to time. You’re so stressed out, you don’t even know where to begin. Deadlines, chores, the demands of friends and family — it’s all too much, and all you can do is react, react, react. But that’s not living. That’s just being pushed around by life’s events and your emotions.

Lesson 3: If you don’t want to get stuck in “tactical hell,” you must take a higher, wider, more long-term perspective regularly.

In order to combat tactical hell, we must “take an elevated perspective,” Greene says. What does that mean? Zoom out! Remember the big picture. Think about how big life is, and how small your problems in comparison. Consider the long-term view: Will your neighbor really stay angry at you forever because you blocked his driveway once?

Most of the battles you find yourself in aren’t really battles you have to fight. You can disengage. Take a breath when life gets stressful. Write an angry email but don’t send it. Remember your mortality, and think about long-term consequences rather than short-term discomfort. Take these steps, and you’ll rarely get stuck in tactical hell!

In <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/simon-sinek-books/">Simon Sinek’s </a><a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-infinite-game-summary/">The Infinite Game </a>, there is an exercise to discover your “Just Cause.” When I did it for Four Minute Books, I realized our larger purpose was this: We want to build a world in which every person reads at least one page a day, and no human, child or adult, is afraid to open any book.

The Daily Laws - Boo Review

“Read a page, save the day.” That’s the mantra we want you to adopt, and in that sense, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56756745-the-daily-laws">The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature </a>is the perfect tool. Try reading a page a day, and if it doesn’t stick, just flick around to see which laws grab you the most!

Fun fact: Ryan Holiday was Greene’s mentee, and he likely helped him with this book, which is very similar to <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-daily-stoic-summary/">The Daily Stoic </a>, an equally valuable and easy-to-read book.

The 33-year-old frustrated project manager who can’t seem to get ahead at his job, the 46-year-old successful painter who’s wondering where next to take her career, and anyone who wants to get an overview of Robert Greene’s work.

Who would I recommend the Daily Laws  to?

Our summary of The Daily Laws by Robert Greene will teach you 3 lessons from the big topics of the book: mastery, power, and emotions.

habits

Habits

The Daily Laws Summary

Positive affirmations are some set of words filled with positively. We should practice daily positive affirmation.Here is 20 positive affirmation to build your confidence and live your life fully.

Positive Affirmation

I am confident and I highly value myself.

Confidence

I am growing and learning about new things everyday.

Grow

I believe in myself, my skills and my capabilities.

Skills

I have the power to change myself and I have to be confident about my actions by doing that can change the world.

Power

I am determined and I can do anything I set my mind to.

Determination

I am confident in my ability to solve issues and problems.

Abilities

I grow with every challenge and won't let obstacles stop me. Also I seek discomfort, it helps me to overcome my insecurities

Challenges

I am consistent in my hard work and have the vision to achieve my goals.

Hard Work

Success is a journey and I am on a journey. I have or can easily get everything I need to succeed

Success

I let go limiting beliefs and choose to trust myself.

Trust

There will be a lot of problems but I know I can face every challenge with ease, there is nothing I can't overcome.

Problems

I am creating my dream life every single day

Dreams

I believe in my ability to express my true self with ease and transparency

Expressions

I show up every day and do my best to present the best version of myself.

Best Abilities

All I need to succeed is my belief and my faith within me.

Beliefs

I am in full control of my life and what happens to me.

Control

I release negative self talk and don't need validation from others

Negative Talk

It gives me a push and reminds me who am I and what I want in life. 

20 positive affirmations to build your confidence

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