The 48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws of Power：LAW1 NEVER OUTSHINE THE MASTER；LAW2 NEVER PUT TOO MUCH TRUST IN FRIENDS, LEARN HOW TO USE ENEMIES；LAW3 CONCEAL YOUR INTENTIONS……

The 48 Laws of Power

• LAW1 NEVER OUTSHINE THE MASTER
  • Always make those above you feel comfortably superior and you will attain the heights of power.
    • All masters want to appear more brilliant than other people. They care about their name and glory.
    • Everyone has insecurities.
    • Never imagine that because the master loves you, you can do anything you want.
    • Discreet flattery is much more powerful.(ascribe your contribution to him, at least have some connection with them.)
    • *If your superior is a falling star(and weak),discreetly outshining. In a word: consider the situation.
• LAW2 NEVER PUT TOO MUCH TRUST IN FRIENDS, LEARN HOW TO USE ENEMIES
  • People forget the favors they have received and imagine they have earned their success by their own merits. If you never expect gratitude from a friend, you will be pleasantly surprised when they do prove grateful.
  • Friends often agree on things in order to avoid an argument. They cover up their unpleasant qualities so as to not offend each other. You may never know how a friend truly feels.
  • All working situations require a kind of distance between people. You are trying to work, not make friends; friendliness (real or fake) only obscures that fact. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.
  • A person who has something to prove will move mountains for you.
  • You destroy an enemy when you make a friend of him. Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes better. To use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them into friends or allies.
  • Mao's(Mao Tes-tung) strategy of constant conflict has several key components. First, be certain that in the long run you will emerge victorious. Never pick a fight with someone you are not sure you can defeat, as Mao knew the Japanese would be defeated in time. Second, if you have no apparent enemies, you must sometimes set up a convenient target, even turning a friend into an enemy. Mao used this tactic time and again in politics. Third, use such enemies to define your cause more clearly to the public, even framing it as a struggle of good against evil.
  • The man of power welcomes conflict, using enemies to enhance his reputation as a surefooted fighter who can be relied upon in times of uncertainty.
• LAW3 CONCEAL YOUR INTENTIONS
  • Keep people off-balance. If they have no clue what you are up to, they can not prepare a defense.
    • Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. 1.It is easy and natural to always want to talk about one's feelings and plans for the future. It takes effort to control your tongue and monitor what you reveal. 2.Many believe being honest and open they are winning people's hearts and showing their good nature. Well...they are greatly deluded. Your honesty is likely to offend people: it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly words of what you feel or think. 3.By being unabashedly open make yourself so predictable and familiar that it is almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not occure to a person who cannot inspire such emotions. If you yearn for power, quickly lay honesty aside, and train yourself in the art of concealing your intentions.
    • A tactic that is often effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments.
    • Hide your intentions not by closing up (with the risk of appearing secretive, and making people suspicious) but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals, just not your real ones.
    • The best deceivers utilize a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves. They know that extravagant words and gestures immediately raise suspicion. Instead, they envelop their mark in the familiar, the banal, the harmless. The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned, without detection. This is a weapon that the most powerful men in history have learned to perfect. Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce die victim into believing you will continue in die same way. The pattern plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behavior conforms to patterns, or so we like to think.
    • A sheep never marauds, a sheep never deceives, a sheep is magnificently dumb and docile. With a sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.
    • *No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get older and achieve success, it often becomes increasingly difficult to disguise your cunning. In such cases it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or, better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness, but, most wonderful and strange of all, you will be able to continue your stratagems.
• LAW4 ALWAYS SAY LESS THAN NECESSARY
  • Power is in many ways a game of appearances, and when you say less than necessary, you inevitably appear greater and more powerful than you are.
    • Your silence will make other people uncomfortable. Humans are machines of interpretation and explanation; they have to know what you are thinking. When you carefully control what you reveal, they cannot pierce your intentions or your meaning.
    • Your short answers and silences will put them on the defensive, and they will jump in, nervously filling the silence with all kinds of comments that will reveal valuable information about them and their weaknesses. They will leave a meeting with you feeling as if they had been robbed, and they will go home and ponder your every word.
    • Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.
    • The longer I keep quiet, the sooner others move their lips and teeth. As they move their lips and teeth, I can thereby understand their real intentions....
    • *There are times when it is unwise to be silent. Silence can arouse suspicion and even insecurity, especially in your superiors; a vague or ambiguous comment can open you up to interpretations you had not bargained for. Silence and saying less than necessary must be practiced with caution, then, and in the right situations.
• LAW5 SO MUCH DEPENDS ON REPUTATION, GUARD IT WITH YOUR LIFE
  • Make your reputation unassailable,learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations.Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.
    • Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Reputation has a power like magic: With one stroke of its wand, it can double your strength.
    • A solid reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your strengths without your having to spend much energy. It can also create an aura around you that will instill respect, even fear. Whether the exact same deeds appear brilliant or dreadful can depend entirely on the reputation of the doer.
    • In the beginning, you must work to establish a reputation for one outstanding quality, whether generosity or honesty or cunning. This quality sets you apart and gets other people to talk about you. You then make your reputation known to as many people as possible (subtly, though; take care to build slowly, and with a firm foundation), and watch as it spreads like wildfire.
    • Your reputation inevitably precedes you, and if it inspires respect, a lot of your work is done for you before you arrive on the scene, or utter a single word.
    • If you have already stained your reputation, so that you are prevented from establishing a new one. It is hard, for example, to erase a reputation for dishonesty by yourself; but a paragon of honesty can help.
    • Doubt is a powerful weapon: Once you let it out of the bag with insidious rumors, your opponents are in a horrible dilemma. On the one hand they can deny the rumors, even prove that you have slandered them. But a layer of suspicion will remain.This is the perfect weapon for those who have no reputation of their own to work from.
    • An attack on another man's reputation is a potent weapon, particularly when you have less power than he does. He has much more to lose in such a battle, and your own thus-far-small reputation gives him a small target when he tries to return your fire. But this tactic must be practiced with skill; you must not seem to engage in petty governance. If you do not break your enemy's reputation cleverly, you will inadvertentiy ruin your own.
• LAW6 COURT ATTENTION AT ALL COST
  • At the start of your career, you must attach your name and reputation to a quality, an image, that sets you apart from other people. This image can be something like a characteristic style of dress, or a personality quirk that amuses people and gets talked about. Once the image is established, you have an appearance, a place in the sky for your star.
  • People feel superior to the person whose actions they can predict. If you show them who is in control by playing against their expectations, you would gain their respect and tighten your hold on their fleeting attention.
  • In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems enigmatic instantly draws attention. Never make it too clear what you are doing or about to do. Do not show all your cards. An air of mystery heightens your presence; it also creates anticipation, everyone will be watching you to see what happens next. Use mystery to beguile, seduce, even frighten.
• LAW7 GET OTHERS TO DO THE WORK FOR YOU, BUT ALWAYS TAKE THE CREDIT
  • Learn to take advantage of other people's work to further your own cause. Time is precious and life is short. If you try to do it all on your own, you run yourself ragged, waste energy, and burn yourself out. It is far better to conserve your forces, pounce on the work others have done, and find a way to make it your own.
  • This is the essence of the Law: Learn to get others to do the work for you while you take the credit, and you appear to be of godlike strength and power. If you think it is important to do all the work yourself, you will never get far, and you will suffer. Find people with the skills and creativity you lack. Either hire them, while putting your own name on top of theirs, or find a way to take their work and make it your own. Their creativity thus becomes yours, and you seem a genius to the world.
  • Learn to use the knowledge of the past and you will look like a genius, even when you are really just a clever borrower.
  • Writers who have delved into human nature, ancient masters of strategy, historians of human stupidity and folly, kings and queens who have learned the hard way how to handle the burdens of power, their knowledge is gathering dust, waiting for you to come and stand on their shoulders. Their wit can be your wit, their skill can be your skill, and they will never come around to tell people how unoriginal you really are. You can slog through life, making endless mistakes, wasting time and energy trying to do things from your own experience. Or you can use the armies of the past. As Bismarck once said, "Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience."
  • *There are times when taking the credit for work that others have done is not the wise course: If your power is not firmly enough established, you will seem to be pushing people out of the limelight. To be a brilliant exploiter of talent your position must be unshakable, or you will be accused of deception. *Be sure you know when letting other people share the credit serves your purpose. It is especially important to not be greedy when you have a master above you.
• LAW8 MAKE OTHER PEOPLE COME TO YOU，USE BAIT IF NECESSARY
  • The essence of power is the ability to keep the initiative, to get others to react to your moves, to keep your opponent and those around you on the defensive. When you make other people come to you, you suddenly become the one controlling the situation.
  • You yourself must learn to master your emotions, and never to be influenced by anger; meanwhile, however, you must play on people's natural tendency to react angrily when pushed and baited.
  • For negotiations or meetings, it is always wise to lure others into your territory, or the territory of your choice.
  • Manipulation is a dangerous game. Once someone suspects he is being manipulated, it becomes harder and harder to control him. But when you make your opponent come to you, you create the illusion that he is controlling the situation. He does not feel the strings that pull him,
• LAW9 WIN THROUGH YOUR ACTIONS, NEVER THROUGH ARGUMENT
  • It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
    • It is not simply a question of avoiding an argument with those who stand above you. We all believe we are masters in the realm of opinions and reasoning. You must be careful, then: Learn to demonstrate the correctness of your ideas indirectiy.
    • In the realm of power you must learn to judge your moves by their long-term effects on other people. The problem in trying to prove a point or gain a victory through argument is that in the end you can never be certain how it affects the people you're arguing with.
    • In society nothing must be discussed, give only results.
    • *Verbal argument has one vital use in the realm of power: To distract and cover your tracks when you are practicing deception or are caught in a lie. In such cases it is to your advantage to argue with all the conviction you can muster.
• LAW10 INFECTION: AVOID THE UNHAPPY AND UNLUCKY
  • There is nothing to be gained by associating with those who infect you with their misery; there is only power and good fortune to be obtained by associating with the fortunate.
    • The risk of associating with infectors is that you will waste valuable time and energy trying to free yourself.
    • Only create associations with positive affinities. Make this a rule of life and you will benefit more than from all the therapy in the world.
    • The reason is simple: humans are extremely susceptible to the moods, emotions, and even the ways of thinking of those with whom they spend their time.
• LAW11 LEARN TO KEEP PEOPLE DEPENDENT ON YOU
  • Do not be one of the many who mistakenly believe that the ultimate form of power is independence. Power involves a relationship between people; you will always need others as allies, pawns, or even as weak masters who serve as your front.
    • The ultimate power is the power to get people to do as you wish. When you can do this without having to force people or hurt them, when they willingly grant you what you desire, then your power is untouchable. The best way to achieve this position is to create a relationship of dependence.
    • To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
    • The best you can hope for is that others will grow so dependent on you that you enjoy a kind of reverse independence: Their need for you frees you.
    • Do not imagine that your master's dependence on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you. Depending on an emotion as changeable as love or friendship will only make you insecure.
• LAW 12 USE SELECTIVE HONESTY AND GENEROSITY TO DISARM YOUR VICTIM
  • The essence of deception is distraction. Distracting the people you want to deceive gives you the time and space to do something they won't notice. An act of kindness, generosity, or honesty is often the most powerful form of distraction because it disarms other people's suspicions.
    • One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people.
    • Selective honesty is best employed on your first encounter with someone. We are all creatures of habit, and our first impressions last a long time.
    • Honesty is one of the best ways to disarm the wary, but it is not the only one. Any kind of noble, apparently selfless act will serve. Perhaps the best such act, though, is one of generosity. Few people can resist a gift, even from the most hardened enemy, which is why it is often the perfect way to disarm people.
    • *Nothing in the realm of power is set in stone. Overt deceptiveness will sometimes cover your tracks, even making you admired for the honesty of your dishonesty.
• LAW 13 WHEN ASKING FOR HELP, APPEAL TO PEOPLE'S SELF-INTEREST, NEVER TO THEIR MERCY OR GRATITUDE
  • There is an art to asking for help, an art that depends on your ability to understand the person you are dealing with, and to not confuse your needs with theirs.
    • If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
    • Most people never succeed at this, because they are completely trapped in their own wants and desires. They start from the assumption that the people they are appealing to have a selfless interest in helping them. They talk as if their needs mattered to these people. What they do not realize is that even the most powerful person is locked inside needs of his own, and that if you make no appeal to his self-interest, he merely sees you as desperate or, at best, a waste of time.
    • A key step in the process is to understand the other person's psychology. Is he vain? Is he concerned about his reputation or his social standing? Does he have enemies you could help him vanquish? Is he simply motivated by money and power? You must train yourself to think your way inside the other person's mind, to see their needs and interests, to get rid of the screen of your own feelings that obscure the truth.
    • The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.
    • *Not everyone, then, can be approached through cynical self-interest. Some people need opportunities to display their good heart. Do not be shy. Give them that opportunity. It's not as if you are conning them by asking for help, it is really their pleasure to give, and to be seen giving. You must distinguish the differences among powerful people and figure out what makes them tick. When they want to look charitable and noble, do not appeal to their greed.
• LAW 14 POSE AS A FRIEND, WORK AS A SPY
  • Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Play the spy yourself will be better.
    • In the realm of power, your goal is a degree of control over future events. Part of the problem you face, then, is that people won't tell you all their thoughts, emotions, and plans. The result is that you cannot predict their moves. The trick is to find a way to probe them, to find out their secrets and hidden intentions, without letting them know what you are up to.
    • By pretending to bare your heart to another person, in other words, you make them more likely to reveal their own secrets. Give them a false confession and they will give you a real one.
    • *Information is critical to power, but just as you spy on other people, you must be prepared for them to spy on you. “Truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” You must surround yourself with such a bodyguard, so that your truth cannot be penetrated. By planting the information of your choice, you control the game.
• LAW 15 CRUSH YOUR ENEMY TOTALLY
  • Remember the lessons of history, and the wisdom of Moses and Mao: Never go halfway. It is not, of course, a question of murder, it is a question of banishment.
    • More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.
    • Have no mercy. Crush your enemies as totally as they would crush you. Ultimately the only peace and security you can hope for from your enemies is their disappearance.
    • The solution is simple: Allow your enemies no options. Annihilate them and their territory is yours to carve. The goal of power is to control your enemies completely, to make them obey your will. Give your enemies nothing to negotiate, no hope, no room to maneuver. They are crushed and that is that.
    • *This law should very rarely be ignored, but it does sometimes happen that it is better to let your enemies destroy themselves, if such a thing is possible, than to make them suffer by your hand.
• LAW 16 USE ABSENCE TO INCREASE RESPECT AND HONOR
  • You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.
    • Everything in the world depends on absence and presence.
    • Learn to keep yourself obscure and make people demand your return. Extend the law of scarcity to your own skills.
    • *This law only applies once a certain level of power has been attained. The need to withdraw only comes after you have established your presence; leave too early and you do not increase your respect, you are simply forgotten. When you are first entering onto the world's stage, create an image that is recognizable, reproducible, and is seen everywhere. Until that status is attained, absence is dangerous instead of fanning the flames, it will extinguish them.
• LAW 17 KEEP OTHERS IN SUSPENDED TERROR: CULTIVATE AN AIR OF UNPREDICTABILITY
  • Nothing is more terrifying than the sudden and unpredictable.
    • Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves.
    • *Unpredictability can work against you sometimes, especially if you are in a subordinate position. There are times when it is better to let people feel comfortable and settled around you than to disturb them.
• LAW 18 DO NOT BUILD FORTRESSES TO PROTECT YOURSELF ISOLATION IS DANGEROUS
  • Because humans are social creatures by nature, power depends on social interaction and circulation. To make yourself powerful you must place yourself at the center of things.
    • Designed to defend you, fortresses actually cut you off from help and cut into your flexibility.
    • The danger for most people comes when they feel threatened. In such times they tend to retreat and close ranks, to find security in a kind of fortress. In doing so, however, they come to rely for information on a smaller and smaller circle, and lose perspective on events around them.
    • Since humans are such social creatures, it follows that the social arts that make us pleasant to be around can be practiced only by constant exposure and circulation. The more you are in contact with others, the more graceful and at ease you become.
    • *The weight of society's pressure to conform, and die lack of distance from other people, can make it impossible to think clearly about what is going on around you. As a temporary recourse, men, isolation can help you to gain perspective.
• LAW 19 KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH DO NOT OFFEND THE WRONG PERSON
  • Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then never offend or deceive the wrong person.
    • All people have insecurities, and often the best way to deceive a sucker is to play upon his insecurities. But in the realm of power, everything is a question of degree, and the person who is decidedly more insecure than the average mortal presents great dangers. To see if you are dealing with such a type, test them , say, a mild joke at their expense. A confident person will laugh; an overly insecure one will react as if personally insulted. If you suspect you are dealing with this type, find another victim.
    • First, in judging and measuring your opponent, never rely on your instincts. You will make the greatest mistakes of all if you rely on such inexact indicators. Nothing can substitute for gathering concrete knowledge. Study and spy on your opponent for however long it takes; this will pay off in die long run. Second, Learn to see through appearances and their contradictions. Never trust the version that people give of themselves, it is utterly unreliable.
    • We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget an insult.
• LAW 20 DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE
  • DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE, BUT BE COURTED BY ALL
    • As your reputation for independence grows, more and more people will come to desire you, wanting to be the one who gets you to commit. Desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired by other people, we tend to find this person desirable too.
    • They will give you gifts, shower you with favors, all to put you under obligation. Encourage the attention, stimulate their interest, but do not commit at any cost. Accept the gifts and favors if you so desire, but be careful to maintain your inner aloofness. You cannot inadvertentiy allow yourself to feel obligated to anyone.
    • You need to stir the pot, excite interest, lure people with the possibility of having you. You have to bend to their attention occasionally, but never too far.
    • Stay aloof and people will come to you. It will become a challenge for them to win your affections.
  • DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE-STAY ABOVE THE FRAY
    • To play the game properly, you must seem interested in other people's problems, even sometimes appear to take their side. But while you make outward gestures of support, you must maintain your inner energy and sanity by keeping your emotions disengaged.
    • Your moves stay matters of your own choosing, not defensive reactions to the push-and-pull of those around you.
    • Your moves stay matters of your own choosing, not defensive reactions to the push-and-pull of those around you.
• LAW 21 PLAY A SUCKER TO CATCH A SUCKER SEEM DUMBER THAN YOUR MARK
  • No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart and not just smart, but smarter than you are.
    • Appearing less intelligent than you are, even a bit of a fool, is the perfect disguise. Look like a harmless pig and no one will believe you harbor dangerous ambitions.
    • Always make people believe they are smarter and more sophisticated than you are. They will keep you around because you make them feel better about themselves.
    • *If a man is to be liked, he must really be inferior in point of intellect. At the start of your climb to the top, of course, you cannot play too stupid: You may want to let your bosses know, in a subtle way, that you are smarter than the competition around you. As you climb the ladder, however, you should to some degree try to dampen your brilliance.
• LAW 22 USE THE SURRENDER TACTIC: TRANSFORM WEAKNESS INTO POWER
  • Make surrender a tool of power.
    • When you are weaker, never fight for honor's sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane.
    • By yielding, you in fact control the situation, because your surrender is part of a larger plan to lull them into believing they have defeated you.
    • The essence of the surrender tactic: Inwardly you stay firm, but outwardly you bend. The point of surrendering is to save your hide for a later date when you can reassert yourself.
    • We have seen that it can be better to surrender than to fight; faced with a more powerful opponent and a sure defeat, it is often also better to surrender than to run away.
• LAW 23 CONCENTRATE YOUR FORCES
  • Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point.
  • It is a form of retreat inside ourselves, to the past, to more concentrated forms of thought and action.
• LAW 24 PLAY THE PERFECT COURTIER
  • The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity.
    • Avoid Ostentation. It is never prudent to prattle on about yourself or call too much attention to your actions.
    • Be Frugal with Flattery. It may seem that your superiors cannot get enough flattery, but too much of even a good thing loses its value. It also stirs up suspicion among your peers. Learn to flatter indirectly by downplaying your own contribution, for example, to make your master look better.
    • Arrange to Be Noticed. There is a paradox: You cannot display yourself too brazenly, yet you must also get yourself noticed. This task requires much art.
    • Alter Your Style and Language According to the Person You Are Dealing With. This is not lying, it is acting, and acting is an art, not a gift from God. Learn the art.
    • Never Be the Bearer of Bad News. You must struggle and if necessary lie and cheat to be sure that the lot of the bearer of bad news falls on a colleague, never on you. Bring only good news and your approach will gladden your master.
    • Never Affect Friendliness and Intimacy with Your Master. He does not want a friend for a subordinate, he wants a subordinate. Never approach him in an easy, friendly way.
    • Never Criticize Those Above You Directly. This may seem obvious, but there are often times when some sort of criticism is necessary to say nothing, or to give no advice. You must learn, however, to couch your advice and criticism as indirectly and as politely as possible.
    • Be Frugal in Asking Those Above You for Favors. Do not ask for favors on another person's behalf, least of all a friend's.
    • Master Your Emotions. As an actor in a great play, you must learn to cry and laugh on command and when it is appropriate. You must be able both to disguise your anger and frustration and to fake your contentment and agreement. You must be the master of your own face. Call it lying if you like; but if you prefer to not play the game and to always be honest and upfront, do not complain when others call you obnoxious and arrogant.
    • Be a Source of Pleasure. This is critical. It is an obvious law of human nature that we will flee what is unpleasant and distasteful, while charm and the promise of delight will draw us like moths to a flame.
    • Never imagine that skill and talent are all that matter. In court the courtier's art is more important than his talent; never spend so much time on your studies that you neglect your social skills. And the greatest skill of all is the ability to make the master look more talented than those around him.
• LAW 25 RE-CREATE YOURSELF
  • Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you.
    • The first step in the process of self-creation is self-consciousness， being aware of yourself as an actor and taking control of your appearance and emotions.
    • Good actors control themselves better. They can play sincere and heartfelt, can affect a tear and a compassionate look at will, but they don't have to feel it. They externalize emotion in a form that others can understand.
    • Learn to play many roles, to be whatever the moment requires. Adapt your mask to the situation be protean in die faces you wear.
• LAW 26 KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN
  • CONCEAL YOUR MISTAKES-HAVE A SCAPEGOAT AROUND TO TAKE THE BLAME.
    • Our good name and reputation depend more on what we conceal than on what we reveal. Everyone makes mistakes, but those who are truly clever manage to hide them, and to make sure someone else is blamed. A convenient scapegoat should always be kept around for such moments.
    • Choosing a close associate as a scapegoat. You may lose a friend or aide, but in the long-term scheme of things, it is more important to hide your mistakes than to hold on to someone who one day will probably turn against you. Besides, you can always find a new favorite to take his place.
  • MAKE USE OF THE CAT'S-PAW
    • If there is something unpleasant or unpopular that needs to be done, it is far too risky for you to do the work yourself. You need a cat's-paw someone who does the dirty, dangerous work for you. The cat's-paw grabs what you need, hurts whom you need hurt, and keeps people from noticing that you are the one responsible.
    • Find a cat's-paw. Develop the arts of finding, using, and, in time, getting rid of these people when their cat's-paw role has been fulfilled.
    • The Cat's-Paw. It has long claws to grab things. It is soft and padded. Take hold of the cat and use its paw to pluck things out of the fire, to claw your enemy, to play with the mouse before devouring it. Sometimes you hurt the cat, but most often it doesn't feel a thing.
    • Important affairs often require rewards and punishments. Let only the good come from you and the evil from others.
  • *If you have to use a cat's-paw or a scapegoat in an action of great consequence, be very careful: Too much can go wrong. *There are moments when it is advantageous to not disguise your involvement or responsibility, but rather to take the blame yourself for some mistake. If you have power and are secure in it, you should sometimes play the penitent: With a sorrowful look, you ask for forgiveness from those weaker than you.
• LAW 27 PLAY ON PEOPLE'S NEED TO BELIEVE TO CREATE A CULTLIKE FOLLOWING
  • People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf.
    • Step 1: Keep It Vague; Keep It Simple. To create a cult you must first attract attention. This you should do not through actions, which are too clear and readable, but through words, which are hazy and deceptive. Your initial speeches, conversations, and interviews must include two elements: on one hand, the promise of something great and trans formative, and on the other , a total vagueness. This combination will stimulate all kinds of hazy dreams in your listeners, who will make their own connections and see what they want to see.
    • Step 2: Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the Intellectual.
    • Step 3: Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion to Structure the Group. Find a way both elevating and comforting. Organized religions have long held unquestioned authority for large numbers of people, and continue to do so in yours.
    • Step 4: Set Up an Us-Versus-Them Dynamic. To keep your followers united, you must now do what all religions and belief systems have done: create an us-versus-diem dynamic. First, make sure your followers believe they are part of an exclusive club, unified by a bond of common goals. Then, to strengthen this bond, manufacture the notion of a devious enemy out to ruin you.
    • *If at any moment the group sees through you, you will find yourself facing not one deceived soul but an angry crowd that will tear you to pieces. *In playing with the crowd, you are playing with fire, and must constantly keep an eye out for any sparks of doubt, any enemies who will turn the crowd against you.
• LAW 28 ENTER ACTION WITH BOLDNESS
  • Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness.
    • The Bolder the Lie the Better. We all have weaknesses, and our efforts are never perfect. But entering action with boldness has the magical effect of hiding our deficiencies.
    • When putting together a con or entering any kind of negotiation, go further than you planned. Ask for the moon and you will be surprised how often you get it.
    • Lions Circle the Hesitant Prey. People have a sixth sense for the weaknesses of others. If, in a first encounter, you demonstrate your willingness to compromise, back down, and retreat, you bring out the lion even in people who are not necessarily bloodthirsty.
    • Going Halfway with Half a Heart Digs the Deeper Grave. If you enter an action with less than total confidence, you set up obstacles in your own path. When a problem arises you will grow confused, seeing options where there are none and creating more problems.
    • Hesitation Creates Gaps, Boldness Obliterates Them. When you take time to think, to hem and haw, you create a gap that allows others time to think as well.
    • Part of the charm of being seduced is that it makes us feel engulfed, temporarily outside of ourselves and the usual doubts that permeate our lives. The moment the seducer hesitates, the charm is broken, because we become aware of the process, of their deliberate effort to seduce us, of their self-consciousness. Boldness directs attention outward and keeps the illusion alive.
    • Understand: If boldness is not natural, neither is timidity. It is an acquired habit, picked up out of a desire to avoid conflict. If timidity has taken hold of you, then, root it out. Your fears of the consequences of a bold action are way out of proportion to reality, and in fact the consequences of timidity are worse.
    • You must practice and develop your boldness. You will often find uses for it. The best place to begin is often the delicate world of negotiation.
    • *Boldness should never be the strategy behind all of your actions. It is a tactical instrument, to be used at the right moment. Plan and think ahead, and make the final element the bold move that will bring you success.
• LAW 29 PLAN ALL THE WAY TO THE END
  • The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences and obstacles.
    • When you see several steps ahead, and plan your moves all the way to the end, you will no longer be tempted by emotion or by the desire to improvise. Your clarity will rid you of the anxiety and vagueness that are the primary reasons why so many fail to conclude their actions successfully. You see the ending and you tolerate no deviation.
    • It is a cliche among strategists that your plan must include alternatives and have a degree of flexibility. That is certainly true.
    • If you are clear and far-thinking enough, you will understand that the future is uncertain, and that you must be open to adaptation. Only having a clear objective and a far-reaching plan allows you that freedom.
• LAW 30 MAKE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS SEEM EFFORTLESS
  • The more mystery surrounds your actions, the more awesome your power seems.
    • Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work, it only raises questions.
    • As long as the partial disclosure of tricks and techniques is carefully planned, rather than the result of an uncontrollable need to blab, it is the ultimate in cleverness. It gives the audience the illusion of being superior and involved, even while much of what you do remains concealed from them.
    • *There are also times when revealing the inner workings of your projects can prove worthwhile. It all depends on your audience's taste.
• LAW 31 CONTROL THE OPTIONS: GET OTHERS TO PLAY WITH THE CARDS YOU DEAL
  • The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose.
    • Words like “freedom,” “options,” and “choice” evoke a power of possibility far beyond the reality of the benefits they entail. When examined closely, the choices we have in the marketplace have noticeable limitations: They are often a matter of a choice simply between A and B, with the rest of the alphabet out of the picture. We rarely focus on the missing options. We “choose” to believe that the game is fair, and that we have our freedom. We prefer not to think too much about the depth of our liberty to choose.
    • This unwillingness to probe the smallness of our choices stems from the fact that too much freedom creates a kind of anxiety. The phrase “unlimited options” sounds infinitely promising, but unlimited options would actually paralyze us and cloud our ability to choose. Our limited range of choices comforts us.
    • For people who are choosing between alternatives find it hard to believe they are being manipulated or deceived; they cannot see that you are allowing them a small amount of free will in exchange for a much more powerful imposition of your own will.
    • A good technique to use on children and other willful people who enjoy doing the opposite of what you ask them to: Push them to “choose” what you want them to do by appearing to advocate the opposite.
• LAW 32 PLAY TO PEOPLE'S FANTASIES
  • The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment.
    • Never be distracted by people's glamorous portraits of themselves and their lives; search and dig for what really imprisons them. Once you find that, you have the magical key that will put great power in your hands.
    • Truth is cold, sober fact, not so comfortable to absorb. A lie is more palatable. The most detested person in the world is the one who always tells the truth, who never romances. . . . It far more interesting and profitable to romance than to tell the truth.
• LAW 33 DISCOVER EACH MAN'S THUMBSCREW
  • Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
    • To appear to open up to the other person, to share a secret with them. It can be completely made up, or it can be real but of no great importance to you, the important thing is that it should seem to come from the heart. This will usually elicit a response that is not only as frank as yours but more genuine a response that reveals a weakness.
    • The two main emotional voids to fill are insecurity and unhappiness. The insecure are suckers for any kind of social validation; as for the chronically unhappy, look for the roots of their unhappiness. The insecure and the unhappy are the people least able to disguise their weaknesses. The ability to fill their emotional voids is a great source of power, and an indefinitely prolong-able one.
    • *Playing on people's weakness has one significant danger: You may stir up an action you cannot control. The more emotional the weakness, the greater the potential danger. Know the limits to this game, then, and never get carried away by your control over your victims. You are after power, not the thrill of control.
• LAW 34 BE ROYAL IN YOUR OWN FASHION: ACT LIKE A KING TO BE TREATED LIKE ONE
  • The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated.
    • It is within your power to set your own price. How you carry yourself reflects what you think of yourself. If you ask for little, shuffle your feet and lower your head, people will assume this reflects your character. But this behavior is not you, it is only how you have chosen to present yourself to other people.
    • If we believe we are destined for great things, our belief will radiate outward, just as a crown creates an aura around a king. This outward radiance will infect the people around us, who will think we must have reasons to feel so confident. People who wear crowns seem to feel no inner sense of the limits to what they can ask for or what they can accomplish. This too radiates outward. Limits and boundaries disappear.
    • By giving your patron a gift, you are essentially saying that the two of you are equal. It is the old con game of giving so that you can take. The gift strategy is brilliant because you do not beg: You ask for help in a dignified way that implies equality between two people, one of whom just happens to have more money.
    • It is up to you to set your own price. Ask for less and that is just what you will get. Ask for more, however, and you send a signal that you are worth a king's ransom. Even those who turn you down respect you for your confidence, and that respect will eventually pay off in ways you can not imagine.
• LAW 35 MASTER THE ART OF TIMING
  • Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
    • By upsetting the timing of your opponent while you stay patient, you open up time for yourself, which is half the game.
    • Making people wait is a powerful way of forcing time, as long as they do not figure out what you are up to. The opposite effect is equally powerful: You make your opponents hurry. Start off your dealings with them slowly, then suddenly apply pressure, making them feel that everything is happening at once. People who lack the time to think will make mistakes, so set their deadlines for them.
    • Your mastery of timing can really only be judged by how you work with end time, how you quickly change the pace and bring things to a swift and definitive conclusion.
• LAW 36 DISDAIN THINGS YOU CANNOT HAVE: IGNORING THEM IS THE BEST REVENGE
  • You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, not to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move.
    • when you are attacked by an inferior, deflect people's attention by making it clear that the attack has not even registered. Look away, or answer sweetly, showing how little the attack concerns you. Similarly, when you yourself have committed a blunder, the best response is often to make less of your mistake by treating it lightly.
    • Never show that something has affected you, or that you are offended, that only shows you have acknowledged a problem. Contempt is a dish that is best served cold and without affectation.
    • The Tiny Wound. It is small but painful and irritating. You try all sorts of medicaments, you complain, you scratch and pick at the scab. Doctors only make it worse, transforming the tiny wound into a grave matter. If only you had left the wound alone, letting time heal it and freeing yourself of worry.
    • *Develop the skill of sensing problems when they are still small and taking care of them before they become intractable. Learn to distinguish between the potentially disastrous and the mildly irritating, the nuisance that will quietly go away on its own. *Most small troubles will vanish on their own if you leave diem be; but some will grow and fester unless you attend to them.
• LAW 37 CREATE COMPELLING SPECTACLES
  • People are always impressed by the superficial appearance of things....
    • Words put you on the defensive. If you have to explain yourself your power is already in question. Words stir up arguments and divisions; images bring people together. They are the quintessential instruments of power.
    • The first step in using symbols and images is to understand the primacy of sight among the senses. Since the Renaissance, the visual has come to dominate the others（other sense）, and is the sense we most depend on and trust. As Grecian said, “The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.”
    • The visual contains great emotional power. The best way to use images and symbols is to organize them into a grand spectacle that awes people and distracts them from unpleasant realities. This is easy to do: People love what is grand, spectacular, and larger than life. Appeal to their emotions and they will flock to your spectacle in hordes. The visual is the easiest route to their hearts.
• LAW 38 THINK AS YOU LIKE BUT BEHAVE LIKE OTHERS
  • Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.
    • We all tell lies and hide our true feelings, for complete free expression is a social impossibility.
    • The reason arguments do not work is that most people hold their ideas and values without thinking about them. There is a strong emotional content in their beliefs: They really do not want to have to rework their habits of thinking, and when you challenge them, whether directly through your arguments or indirectiy through your behavior, they are hostile.
    • Wise and clever people learn early on that they can display conventional behavior and mouth conventional ideas without having to believe in them.
    • When you go into society, leave behind your own ideas and values, and put on the mask that is most appropriate for the group in which you find yourself.
    • The only time it is worth standing out is when you already stand out when you have achieved an unshakable position of power, and can display your difference from others as a sign of the distance between you.
• LAW 39 STIR UP WATERS TO CATCH FISH
  • You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself you gain a decided advantage.
    • Petulance is not power, it is a sign of helplessness.
    • We have to realize that nothing in the social realm, and in the game of power, is personal. If a person explodes with anger at you (and it seems out of proportion to what you did to them), you must remind yourself that it is not exclusively directed at you do not be so vain. This shift of perspective will let you play the game of power with more clarity and energy, Instead of overreacting.
    • Anger only cuts off our options, and the powerful cannot thrive without options. Once you train yourself not to take matters personally, and to control your emotional responses, you will have placed yourself in a position of tremendous power: Now you can play with the emotional responses of other people.
    • The Pond of Fish. The waters are clear and calm, and the fish are well below the surface. Stir the waters and they emerge. Stir it some more and they get angry, rising to the surface, biting whatever comes near, including a freshly baited hook.
• LAW 40 DESPISE THE FREE LUNCH
  • What is offered for free is dangerous, it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for.
    • In the realm of power, everything must be judged by its cost, and everything has a price. What is offered for free or at bargain rates often comes with a psychological price tag , complicated feelings of obligation, compromises with quality, the insecurity those compromises bring, on and on. The powerful learn early to protect their most valuable resources: independence and room to maneuver. By paying the full price, they keep themselves free of dangerous entanglements and worries.
    • The powerful never forget that what is offered for free is inevitably a trick. Friends who offer favors without asking for payment will later want something far dearer than the money you would have paid them. The bargain has hidden problems, both material and psychological. Learn to pay, then, and to pay well.
    • On the other hand, this Law offers great opportunities for swindling and deception if you apply it from the other side. Dangling the lure of a free lunch is the con artist's stock in trade. Lure people in with the prospect of easy money and you have the room to work still more deceptions on them, since greed is powerful enough to blind your victims to anything. People are essentially lazy, and want wealth to fall in their lap rather than to work for it.
• LAW 41 AVOID STEPPING INTO A GREAT MAN'S SHOES
  • If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Shining in your own way.
  • The past often has elements worth appropriating, qualities that would be foolish to reject out of a need to distinguish yourself. Making a display of doing things differently from your predecessor can make you seem childish and in fact out of control, unless your actions have a logic of their own. Learning from your predecessor's knowledge and experience, which are based on something real.
• LAW 42 STRIKE THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP WILL SCATTER
  • Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.
    • With the leader gone the center of gravity is gone; there is nothing to revolve around and everything falls apart. Aim at the leaders, bring them down, and look for the endless opportunities in the confusion that will ensue.
    • A Flock of Fatted Sheep. Do not waste precious time trying to steal a sheep or two; do not risk life and limb by setting upon the dogs that guard the flock. Aim at the shepherd. Lure him away and the dogs will follow. Strike him down and the flock will scatter, you can pick them off one by one.
    • *Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.
• LAW 43 WORK ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF OTHERS
  • Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.
    • The key to persuasion is softening people up and breaking them down, gently. Seduce them with a two-pronged approach: Work on their emotions and play on their intellectual weaknesses. Be alert to both what separates them from everyone else (their individual psychology) and what they share with everyone else (their basic emotional responses). Aim at the primary emotions love, hate, jealousy. Once you move their emotions you have reduced their control, making them more vulnerable to persuasion.
    • The quickest way to secure people's minds is by demonstrating, as simply as possible, how an action will benefit them. Self-interest is the strongest motive of all.
• LAW 44 DISARM AND INFURIATE WITH THE MIRROR EFFECT
  • The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact.
    • Do what your enemies do, following their actions as best you can, and they cannot see what you are up to， they are blinded by your mirror. Their strategy for dealing with you depends on your reacting to them in a way characteristic of you; neutralize it by playing a game of mimicry with them.
    • You mirror what other people have done to you, and do so in a way that makes them realize you are doing to them exactly what they did to you.
    • People are locked in their own experiences. When you whine about some insensitivity on their part, they may seem to understand, but inwardly they are untouched and even more resistant. The goal of power is always to lower people's resistance to you.
    • If you ever notice people associating you with some past event or person, do everything you can to separate yourself from that memory and to shatter the reflection.
• LAW 45 PREACH THE NEED FOR CHANGE, BUT NEVER REFORM TOO MUCH AT ONCE
  • Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit.
    • If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.
    • They know that change is necessary, and that novelty provides relief from boredom, but deep inside they cling to the past. Change in the abstract, or superficial change, they desire, but a change that upsets core habits and routines is deeply disturbing to them.
    • The opportunity for change and renewal seduces people to the side of the revolution, but once their enthusiasm fades, which it will, they are left with a certain emptiness. Yearning for the past, they create an opening for it to creep back in.
    • The fact that the past is dead and buried gives you the freedom to reinterpret it. To support your cause, tinker with the facts. The past is a text in which you can safely insert your own lines.
    • Powerful people pay attention to the Zeitgeist. If their reform is too far ahead of its time, few will understand it, and it will stir up anxiety and be hopelessly misinterpreted. The changes you make must seem less innovative than they are.
    • He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state, and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones. For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities.
    • If what happened in the recent past was painful and harsh, it is self-destructive to associate yourself with it. So, don't.
• LAW 46 NEVER APPEAR TOO PERFECT
  • Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.
    • Half the problem with envy comes when we do not recognize it until it is too late.
    • Do not try to help or do favors for those who envy you; they will think you are condescending to them.
    • Your good fortune and power become their living hell. If you attain a position of unimpeachable power, their envy will have no effect on you, and you will have the best revenge of all: They are trapped in envy while you are free in your power.
• LAW 47 DO NOT GO PAST THE MARK YOU AIMED FOR; IN VICTORY, LEARN WHEN TO STOP
  • Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.
    • In the realm of power, you must be guided by reason. To let a momentary thrill or an emotional victory influence or guide your moves will prove fatal. When you attain success, step back. Be cautious. When you gain victory, understand the part played by the particular circumstances of a situation, and never simply repeat the same actions again and again.
    • First, You will try to keep moving in the same direction without stopping to see whether this is still the direction that is best for you. Second, success tends to go to your head and make you emotional. Feeling invulnerable, you make aggressive moves that ultimately undo the victory you have gained.
    • As they say in riding school, you have to be able to control yourself before you can control the horse.
    • Luck and circumstance always play a role in power. This is inevitable, and actually makes the game more interesting. But despite what you may think, good luck is more dangerous than bad luck. Bad luck teaches valuable lessons about patience, timing, and the need to be prepared for the worst; good luck deludes you into the opposite lesson, making you think your brilliance will carry you through. Your fortune will inevitably turn, and when it does you will be completely unprepared.
    • *When you beat an enemy, then, make your victory complete. Crush him into nonexistence.
• LAW 48 ASSUME FORMLESSNESS
  • By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.
  • Learning to adapt to each new circumstance means seeing events through your own eyes, and often ignoring the advice that people constantly peddle your way. It means that ultimately you must throw out the laws that others preach, and the books they write to tell you what to do, and the sage advice of the elder.
  • Be brutal with the past, especially your own, and have no respect for the philosophies that are foisted on you from outside.
  • When you play with formlessness, keep on top of the process, and keep your long-term strategy in mind. When you assume a form and go on the attack, use concentration, speed, and power.