48 Laws of Power

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great summary by www.theantimba.com

Law 1: Never outshine the master

• Make those above you feel superior. Do not show your talents too much, it’ll make them insecure.
• Make the master appear more brilliant than they are.

Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn to use enemies

• Friends will quickly betray you.
• Hire former enemies, they’ll be loyal.

Law 3: Conceal your intentions

• Keep people off-balance. They cannot prepare if they don’t know. Guide them down the wrong path.

Law 4: Always say less than necessary

• When trying to impress, the more you say the more common you look and less in control.
• Be vague.
• Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.

Law 5: So much depends on reputation – guard it with your life

• Reputation is the cornerstone of power.
• Reputation alone will make you win.
• Destroy enemies by attacking their reputation. Then stand aside and let the public hang them.

Law 6: Court attention at all cost

• Everything is judged by appearance, what is unseen counts for nothing.
• Never get lost in a crowd.
• Be mysterious, appear more colorful than the masses.

Law 7: Let others to do the work for you, but always take credit

• Use the skills of others to do the work for you, never do yourself what others can do for you.
• Your efficiency will appear god-like.

Law 8: Make other people come to you – use bait if necessary

• When you force others to act, you’re in control.
• Make opponents come to you.
• Lure with gains, then attack.

Law 9: Win through your actions, never through argument

• You never win through argument.
• The resentment last long.
• It’s more powerful to agree with actions.
• Demonstrate, do not explain.

Law 10: Infection: Avoid the unhappy and the unlucky

• You’ll die from others misery – emotional states are as infectious as diseases.
• The unfortunate draw misfortune on themselves and will draw it on you.
• Associate with the happy and fortunate.

Law 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you

• To maintain independence you must be needed and wanted.
• The more you’re relied on, the more freedom you have.
• Make people depend on you for happiness.
• Never teach them enough so they can do without you.

Law 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim

• One sincere move will cover over a dozen dishonest ones.
• Honesty can bring down the guard of suspicious people.
• Open their shield with honesty, then deceive.

Law 13: When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy

• Do not remind people of past deeds.
• Find something that will benefit them and emphasize it out of proportion.

Law 14: Pose as a friend, work as a spy

• Learn to probe and find valuable information.
• Ask indirect questions.
• Every occasion is a chance to spy.

Law 15: Crush your enemy totally

• More is lost through stopping halfway.
• Crush your enemy in body and spirit.

Law 16: Use absence to increase respect and honor

• Too much circulation makes the price go down.
• If you’re already established in a group, temporarily withdraw to make people talk.
• Create value through scarcity.

Law 17: Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability

• Being predictable gives control to others.
• Behavior that isn’t consistent will wear people out, and they’ll stop trying to explain things.
• When used to the extreme, you’ll intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18: Do not build fortresses to protect yourself – isolation is dangerous

• Isolation cuts you off from valuable information.
• Its better to mingle.
• You are shielded from your enemy in a crowd.

Law 19: Know who you’re dealing with – do not offend the wrong person

• Never assume everyone will react the same way.
• Choose your victims carefully.
• Never offend the wrong person.

Law 20: Do not commit to anyone

• Fools rush to pick a side.
• Do not commit to a cause but yourself
• Maintain independence
• Make people chase you and play people against one another

Law 21: Play a sucker to catch a sucker- seem dumber than your mark

• Don’t be stupid, but make your mark appear smarter than you
• Making them appear smarter hides your motives

Law 22: Use the surrender tactic: transformer weakness into power

• When you’re weaker, never fight just for honor but surrender
• Do not give them the satisfaction to win, surrender
• Turn the other cheek to infuriate them

Law 23: Concentrate your forces

• Intensity defeats extensity every time
• Find a fat cow that’ll give you milk for a long time

Law 24: Play the perfect courtier

• Master the art of indirection
• Assert power gracefully

Law 25: Re-create yourself

• Create an identity that commands attention and never bores
• Be the master of your own image
• Use large gestures and actions-your character will seem huge and you’ll gain power

Law 26: Keep your hands clean

• Never appear soiled by mistakes
• Use others as scapegoats to disguise your involvement

Law 27: Play on people’s need to believe to create a cultlike following

• People want to believe in something
• Become the focal point of this and offer them a cause, a new faith
• Keep your words vague but full of promise
• Emphasize enthusiasm over rationality
• Give your new disciples rituals to perform and ask them to make sacrifices

Law 28: Enter action with boldness

• If you’re unsure then don’t do it
• Timidity is dangerous
• Any mistakes your commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity
• Everyone admires boldness, no one honors the timid

Law 29: Plan all the way to the end

• The ending is everything
• Take into account of scenario
• If you plan, you won’t be overwhelmed
• Guide fortune by thinking far ahead

Law 30: Make your accomplishments seem effortless

• Conceal the clever tricks
• Make your success seem natural
• Do not reveal how hard you work
• Teach no one your tricks

Law 31: Control the opinions: get others to play with the cards you deal

• The best deceptions seem to give the other person a choice
• Give options so no matter their choice, you win

Law 32: Play to people’s fantasies

• The truth is unpleasant, avoid it
• People that manufacture romance are like oases in the desert
• There’s great power in tapping into people’s fantasies

Law 33: Discover each man’s thumbscrew

• Find others weaknesses
• Its usually insecurity, uncontrollable emotions, secret pressures

Law 34: Be royal in your own fashion: act like a king to be treated like one

• The way you carry yourself determines how you’re treated
• Appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you
• Kings respect themselves and inspire the same in others
• By acting confident you make yourself destined to wear a crown

Law 35: Master the art of timing

• Never seem in a hurry, always seem patient
• Sniff out the spirit of the times, find the trends that’ll give you power
• Learn to stand back when not ready, and then strike

Law 36: Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them if the best revenge

• Acknowledging petty problems gives them existence
• When you acknowledge an enemy you make them stronger
• The more you a mistake visible, the worse it gets
• If you want something but can’t have it, disdain it
• The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem

Law 37: Create compelling spectacles

• Striking imagery and symbolic gestures create the auro of power and people respond
• Stage spectacles for those around you and heighten your presence
• Dazzle by appearance

Law 38: Think as you like but behave like others

• By flaunting your unconventional ways people will only think you want attention
• They’ll punish you for making them feel inferior
• Blend in

Law 39: Stir up waters to catch fish

• Anger and emotion is counterproductive
• Stay calm and objective
• Make enemies emotional while you stay calm
• Rattle your enemies

Law 40: Despise the free lunch

• What’s offered for free in dangerous
• Pay your own way to avoid guilt and gratitude
• No cutting corners with excellence
• Be lavish with your money, keep it circulating
• Generosity is a sign and magnet for power
• Example: Gypsies and Gifts (add link)

Law 41: Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes

• What happens first always appears better and more original than what’s next
• Following great people means you must double their power
• Gain power by shining in your own way

Law 42: Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

• Trouble can be traced to a single individual
• These people will influence others
• Do not negotiate but banish them
• Strike at the source of the trouble

Law 43: Work on the hearts and minds of others

• Coercion will work against you
• Seduce others into wanting to move in your direction
• Seduce others by operating on their individual psychologies and weaknesses
• Soften them by working their emotions and what they fear
• Ignore the hearts and minds and they will grow to hate you

Law 44: Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect

• When you mirror exactly what your enemies do, they cannot figure out your strategy
• The mirror effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact
• Hold a mirror to their psyches and you’ll seduce them and they’ll think they share your values
• Mirror their actions and they learn lessons

Law 45: Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once

• Everyone wants change but too much is traumatic
• When new to power show you respect old ways
• Make change feel like a gentle improvement on the past

Law 46: Never appear too perfect

• Its dangerous to appear like you have no thoughts
• Its ok to admit to small defects

Law 47: Do not go past the mark you aimed for; in victory know when to stop

• When going to far in victory, you make more enemies
• Set a goal, achieve it, then stop

Law 48: Assume formlessness

• By having a visible plan you open yourself to attack.
• Stay adaptable and on the move
• Accept that nothing is certain and now law fixed
• Everything changes and never bet on it

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