The 48 Laws of Power

Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.

Strangely enough, it is your act of kindness tiiat unbalances everything.

Friends often agree on tilings in order to avoid an argument. They cover up their unpleasant qualities so as to not offend each other. They laugh extra hard at each odier's jokes. Since honesty rarely strengthens friendship, you may never know how a friend truly feels. Friends will say that they love your poetry, adore your music, envy your taste in clothesmaybe they mean it, often they do not.

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. Tacitus, c. a.d. 55-120

Reputation is the cornerstone of power.

inally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, diere are times when die colorful, conspicuous gesture is die right diversionary tactic. The great charlatan mountebanks of seventeendi- and eighteenth-century Europe used humor and entertainment to deceive their audiences. Dazzled by a great show, the public would not notice the charlatans' real intentions. Thus the star charlatan himself would appear in town in a night-black coach drawn by black horses. Clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany him, pulling people in to his demonstrations of elixirs and quack potions. The charlatan made entertainment seem like die business of die day; the business of die day was a

USE ABSENCE TO INCREASE RESPECT AND HONOR

Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing.

ALWAYS SAY LESS THAN NECESSARY

larger than life.