The 48 Laws of Power

by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers

Law 1

Never Outshine the Master

Always make those above you feel comfortably
superior.  In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in
displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire
fear and insecurity.  Make your masters appear more brilliant than they
are and you will attain the heights of power.

Law 2

Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to
use Enemies

Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for
they are easily aroused to envy.  They also become spoiled and tyrannical.
But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has
more to prove.  In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from
enemies.  If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

Law 3

Conceal your
Intentions

Keep people off-balance and in
the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions.  If they have
no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense.  Guide them far
enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they
realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Law 4

Always Say Less
than Necessary

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more
you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control.  Even if you
are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague,
open-ended, and sphinxlike.  Powerful people impress and intimidate by
saying less.  The more you say, the more likely you are to say something
foolish.

Law
5

So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with
your Life

Reputation is the cornerstone of power.  Through
reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are
vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides.  Make your reputation
unassailable.  Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before
they happen.  Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in
their own reputations.  Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Law
6

Court Attention at all Cost

Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen
counts for nothing.  Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or
buried in oblivion.  Stand out.  Be conspicuous, at all cost.
Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more
mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.

Law
7

Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take
the Credit

Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to
further your own cause.  Not only will such assistance save you valuable
time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed.
In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered.
Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Law
8

Make other People come to you – use Bait if
Necessary

When you force the other person to act, you are the one in
control.  It is always better to make your opponent come to you,
abandoning his own plans in the process.  Lure him with fabulous gains
– then attack.  You hold the cards.

Law 9

Win through your Actions, Never through Argument

Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is
really a Pyrrhic victory:  The resentment and ill will you stir up is
stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion.  It is
much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions,
without saying a word.  Demonstrate, do not explicate.

Law 10

Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky

You can die from someone else’s misery –
emotional states are as infectious as disease.  You may feel you are
helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own
disaster.  The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they
will also draw it on you.  Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Law 11

Learn to Keep People Dependent on You

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.

Law 12

Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim

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.  Once your selective
honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at
will.  A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same
purpose.

Law 13

When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest,

Never to their Mercy or Gratitude

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.

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.  Better
still: Play the spy yourself.  In polite social encounters, learn to
probe.  Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses
and intentions.  There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for
artful spying.

Law 15

Crush your Enemy Totally

All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared
enemy must be crushed completely.  (Sometimes they have learned this the
hard way.)  If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders,
a fire will eventually break out.  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.

Law 16

Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor

Too much circulation makes the price go down:  The
more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear.  If you are
already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more
talked about, even more admired.  You must learn when to leave.
Create value through scarcity.

Law 17

Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of
Unpredictability

Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to
see familiarity in other people’s actions.  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.  Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18

Do Not Build
Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous

The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere –
everyone has to protect themselves.  A fortress seems the safest. But
isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts
you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy
target.  Better to circulate among people find allies, mingle.  You
are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

Law 19

Know Who
You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person

There are many different kinds of people in the world, and
you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same
way.  Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of
their lives seeking revenge.  They are wolves in lambs’
clothing.  Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never
offend or deceive the wrong person.

Law 20

Do Not Commit to
Anyone

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides.  Do
not commit to any side or cause but yourself.  By maintaining your
independence, you become the master of others – playing people against
one another, making them pursue you.

Law 21

Play a Sucker to
Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark

No one likes feeling stupider than the next persons.
The trick, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but
smarter than you are.  Once convinced of this, they will never suspect
that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22

Use the
Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into 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.
Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you –
surrender first.  By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle
him.  Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 23

Concentrate Your
Forces

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them
concentrated at their strongest point.  You gain more by finding a rich
mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another
– intensity defeats extensity every time.  When looking for sources
of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you
milk for a long time to come.

Law 24

Play the Perfect
Courtier

The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything
revolves around power and political dexterity.  He has mastered the art of
indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in
the mot oblique and graceful manner.  Learn and apply the laws of
courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.

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 if for you.  Incorporate dramatic devices into your
public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your
character will seem larger than life.

Law 26

Keep Your Hands
Clean

You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your
hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds.  Maintain such a
spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to
disguise your involvement.

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.
In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system
will bring you untold power.

Law 28

Enter Action
with Boldness

If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt
it.  Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution.
Timidity is dangerous:  Better to enter with boldness.  Any mistakes
you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.
Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.

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, obstacles, and twists of
fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others.
By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you
will know when to stop.  Gently guide fortune and help determine the
future by thinking far ahead.

Law 30

Make your
Accomplishments Seem Effortless

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.  Teach no one your tricks or they
will be used against you.

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.  Put them on the horns of
a dilemma:  They are gored wherever they turn.

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 for disenchantment.  Life is so harsh and distressing
that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in
the desert:  Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into
the fantasies of the masses.

Law 33

Discover Each
Man’s Thumbscrew

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall.
That weakness is usual y 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.

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; In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people
disrespect you.  For a king respects himself and inspires the same
sentiment in others.  By acting regally and confident of your powers, you
make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

Law 35

Master the Art
of Timing

Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a
lack of control over yourself, and over time.  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.

Law 36

Disdain Things
you cannot have:  Ignoring them is the best Revenge

By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and
credibility.  The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make
him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to
fix it.  It is sometimes best to leave things alone.  If there is
something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it.  The less
interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

Law 37

Create
Compelling Spectacles

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the
aura of power – everyone responds to them.  Stage spectacles for
those around you, then full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that
heighten your presence.  Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what
you are really doing.

Law 38

Think as you
like but Behave like others

If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting
your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only
want attention and that you look down upon them.  They will find a way to
punish you for making them feel inferior.  It is far safer to blend in and
nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and
those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

Law 39

Stir up Waters
to Catch Fish

Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive.
You must always stay calm and objective.  But if you can make your enemies
angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage.  Put your
enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can
rattle them and you hold the strings.

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.  By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt,
and deceit.  It is also often wise to pay the full price – there is
no cutting corners with excellence.  Be lavish with your money and keep it
circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

Law 41

Avoid Stepping
into a Great Man’s Shoes

What happens first always appears better and more original
than what comes after.  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.
Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in
your own way.

Law 42

Strike the
Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter

Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual
– the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill.  If
you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their
influence.  Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not
try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable.  Neutralize
their influence by isolating or banishing them.  Strike at the source of
the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

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.

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.  By holding up a mirror to their
psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by
holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson.  Few can
resist the power of Mirror Effect.

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.  Too much
innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt.  If you are new to a
position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of
respecting the old way of doing things.  If change is necessary, make it
feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

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.

Law 47

Do not go Past
the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest
peril.  In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you
past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies
than you defeat.  Do not allow success to go to your head.  There is
no substitute for strategy and careful planning.  Set a goal, and when you
reach it, stop.

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.