By The concept of wielding power, especially when illuminated by 48 Laws of Power Quotes, possesses a captivating allure. The sense of authority, the acquisition of esteem, and the ability to evoke fear in others – constitute a potent and entrancing blend of dynamics.
However, those who have experienced wielding power are well aware that it can be a two-sided blade, irrespective of their field. On one side, it can be harnessed for benevolence, while on the other, it can be employed for malevolence.
Frequently, the demarcation between these two can appear quite indistinct. Some managers find themselves at ease in a heightened sense of superiority upon acquiring power, while others have limited capacity for the demands of the role. Hence, the question arises: How can you guarantee that, as a business leader, you wield your power positively? How can you steer clear of misusing it or venturing into the realm of tyranny?
A potential solution might be found in Robert Greene’s work, “The 48 Laws of Power.“ While these principles may occasionally appear stringent or lack moral constraints, they provide a distinctive perspective on the essence of power.
These frank and honest 48 Laws of Power quote will inspire you whether your goal is to defend your business, play the game, or reach the top of the chain.
The 10 from 48 Laws of Power Quote
1. Always make those above you feel comfortably superior in your desire to please and 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.
Robert Greene
2. 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.
Robert Greene
3. Any momentary triumph you think you have 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.
Robert Greene
4. 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.
Robert Greene
5. 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. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Robert Greene
6. When you are weaker, never fight for honors 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 the fighting and defeating you — surrender first. By turning the other cheek you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.
Robert Greene
7. When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity… you cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others.
Robert Greene
8. 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.
Robert Greene
9. 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.
Robert Greene
10. Do not leave your reputation to chance or gossip; it is your life’s artwork, and you must craft it, hone it, and display it with the care of an artist.
Robert Greene
Quotes from 48 Laws of Power
11. Keep your friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent
Robert Greene
12. 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.
Robert Greene
13. Never assume that the person you are dealing with is weaker or less important than you are. Some people are slow to take offense, which may make you misjudge the thickness of their skin, and fail to worry about insulting them. But should you offend their honor and their pride, they will overwhelm you with a violence that seems sudden and extreme given their slowness to anger. If you want to turn people down, it is best to do so politely and respectfully, even if you feel their request is impudent or their offer ridiculous.
Robert Greene
14. Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.
Robert Greene
15. …But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.
Robert Greene
16. 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.
Robert Greene
17. Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.
Robert Greene
18. Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.
Robert Greene
19. There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous.
Robert Greene
20. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.
Robert Greene
21. Person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect.
Robert Greene
22. 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.
Robert Greene
23. You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move. What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile engagement. Your pride is not involved. The best lesson you can teach an irritating gnat is to consign it to oblivion by ignoring it.
Robert Greene
24. For the future, the motto is, “No days unalert.
Robert Greene
25. Few are born bold. Even Napoleon had to cultivate the habit on the battlefield, where he knew it was a matter of life and death. In social settings he was awkward and timid, but he overcame this and practice boldness in every part of his life because he saw its tremendous power, how it could literally enlarge a man(even one who, like Napoleon, was in fact conspicuously small).
Robert Greene
26. Despise The Free Lunch.
Robert Greene
27. Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated.
Robert Greene
28. To succeed in the game of power, you have to master your emotions. But even if you succeed in gaining such self-control, you can never control the temperamental dispositions of those around you. And this presents a great danger.
Robert Greene
29. When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.
Robert Greene
30. Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their roguish qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
Robert Greene
48 Laws of Power Best Quotes
31. An emotional response to a situation is the single greatest barrier to power, a mistake that will cost you a lot more than any temporary satisfaction you might gain by expressing your feelings.
Robert Greene
32. A Prince asked the dying spanish statesman, “Does your Excellency forgive all your enemies?” “I do not have to forgive all my enemies,” answered the stateman, “I have had them all shot.
Robert Greene
33. do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
Robert Greene
34. Never be distracted by people’s glamorous portraits of themselves and their lives; search and dig for what really imprisons them.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
35. A heckler once interrupted Nikita Khrushchev in the middle of a speech in which he was denouncing the crimes of Stalin. “You were a colleague of Stalin’s,” the heckler yelled, “why didn’t you stop him then?” Khrushschev apparently could not see the heckler and barked out, “Who said that?” No hand went up. No one moved a muscle. After a few seconds of tense silence, Khrushchev finally said in a quiet voice, “Now you know why I didn’t stop him.” Instead of just arguing that anyone facing Stalin was afraid, knowing that the slightest sign of rebellion would mean certain death, he had made them feel what it was like to face Stalin—had made them feel the paranoia, the fear of speaking up, the terror of confronting the leader, in this case Khrushchev. The demonstration was visceral and no more argument was necessary.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
36. He who poses as a fool is not a fool.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
37. friendship and love blind every man to their interests.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
38. The key to power, then, is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
39. The human tongue is a beast that few can master.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
40. Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
41. 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.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
42. Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others’ experience.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
43. 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 the real ones.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
44. Power is a game, and in games you do not judge your opponents by their intentions but by the effects of their actions.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
45. Do not wait for a coronation; the greatest emperors crown themselves.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
46. If, for example, you are miserly by nature, you will never go beyond a certain limit; only generous souls attain greatness.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
47. Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes better, then, to use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them into friends or allies.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
48. A man said to a Dervish: “Why do I not see you more often?” The Dervish replied, “Because the words ‘Why have you not been to see me?’ are sweeter to my ear than the words ‘Why have you come again?
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
49. All masters want to appear more brilliant than other people.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
50. Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
48 Laws of Power Quotes Images
51. Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
52. It is not much good being wise among fools and sane among lunatics.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
53. You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling them, and you should not try.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
54. Never argue. In society nothing must be discussed; give only results.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
55. Sometimes any emotion is better than the boredom of security.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
56. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
57. Learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
58. Too much respect for other people’s wisdom will make you depreciate your own.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
59. The mighty lion toys with the mouse that crosses his path—any other reaction would mar his fearsome reputation.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
60. You must be the mirror, training your mind to try to see yourself as others see you.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
61. Learn to use the knowledge of the past and you will look like a genius, even when you are really just a clever borrower.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
62. Person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
While the book may be at the heart of certain controversies, occasionally criticized as harsh and driven by self-interest, there’s no escaping the fact that Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power stands as a brilliant, candid, and captivating compilation of age-old philosophy spanning centuries.
Whether you’re engaged in the realm of business or applying these philosophies to your personal journey, the wisdom within these 48 Laws of Power quotes will educate you on the game’s rules, guiding you to triumph and equipping you to adeptly navigate challenges posed by competitors.
