The 48 Laws of Power

The teaching

As Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power teaches it.

The game, as Greene sees it

Greene begins from the claim that no one can stand outside the game of power. The feeling of having no power over people and events is unbearable, so everyone seeks it; but open grasping is frowned upon, so the game is played indirectly, through charm and appearances. His model is the royal court, where courtiers had to please, rise and survive without ever seeming to scheme. The qualities he prizes are self-control, patience, mastery of one's emotions and the ability to see people as they are.

Each law has its chapter in a fixed shape: the law, a judgement, a story of someone who broke it, a story of someone who kept it, the keys to it, an image, a saying from an authority, and a reversal that tells when the opposite course is wiser. All forty-eight follow here in plain words, gathered by theme.

Those above you

The first law is never to outshine the master. Let those above you feel superior and make them look more brilliant than you, for a master who is outshone becomes an enemy.

The twenty-fourth is to play the perfect courtier: flatter with care, yield gracefully to superiors, never be the one who brings bad news, and exert power only in oblique and graceful ways.

The forty-first is to avoid stepping into a great man's shoes. A successor is measured against the giant before them, so it is better to make a name and a style of one's own.

The forty-sixth is never to appear too perfect. Flawlessness breeds envy and silent enemies, so a harmless fault shown openly is a kind of protection.

Words and silence

The third law is to conceal one's intentions. Keep others off balance by never revealing the purpose behind an act, or by showing them a false purpose to follow.

The fourth is always to say less than necessary. The more one says, the more common one appears and the more likely one is to say something foolish.

The ninth is to win through actions, never through argument: an argument won leaves resentment behind it, while a demonstration persuades without a word.

The fourteenth is to pose as a friend and work as a spy, learning about a rival through polite conversation and well-placed questions.

The thirty-eighth is to think as one likes but behave like others, keeping unusual views for trusted friends so as not to seem to scorn the crowd.

Reputation and presence

The fifth law holds that so much depends on reputation that it must be guarded with one's life. A secure name does much of the work, and an enemy is best wounded through theirs.

The sixth is to court attention at all costs. Whatever is unseen counts for nothing, and being attacked or slandered is better than being ignored.

The sixteenth is to use absence to increase respect: once one's presence is established, a withdrawal makes one more talked of, as scarcity raises a price.

The twenty-fifth is to re-create oneself, refusing the role that others assign and forging an identity that commands attention.

The thirty-fourth is to be royal in one's own fashion: carry oneself as a king would, with dignity and confidence, and people will treat one as a king.

Show, ease and belief

The thirtieth law is to make one's accomplishments seem effortless, hiding the toil and the tricks behind them, so that the ease itself impresses.

The thirty-seventh is to create compelling spectacles: striking images and grand symbolic gestures move people where words would only put one on the defensive.

The thirty-second is to play to people's fantasies. The truth is often unwelcome, and whoever offers a dream draws a crowd.

The twenty-seventh is to play on people's need to believe in order to create a cultlike following: offer a cause, a vague and grand promise, rituals and a sense of belonging.

The forty-third is to work on the hearts and minds of others, because coercion breeds resistance, while seduction makes people want to move in one's direction.

Friends, enemies and other hands

The second law is never to trust friends too far and to learn the use of enemies: friends are quick to envy, while a former enemy has more to prove.

The seventh is to get others to do the work while always taking the credit oneself, borrowing their skill, their time and their ideas.

The tenth calls misfortune infectious and tells the reader to avoid the unhappy and the unlucky, whose misery is said to spread to those around them.

The nineteenth is to know who one is dealing with and never to offend the wrong person, since some people will spend years on revenge.

The twenty-sixth is to keep one's hands clean, using others as scapegoats and as cat's paws to do whatever would leave a stain.

Need and obligation

The eleventh law is to keep people dependent: make oneself so needed that one cannot be dropped, and never teach others enough to do without one.

The thirteenth is to appeal, when asking for help, to people's self-interest, and never to their mercy or their gratitude.

The twentieth is to commit to no one, staying courted by every side and bound to none, so that all of them pursue.

The thirty-third is to discover each person's thumbscrew: the insecurity, the uncontrollable emotion, the need or the small secret pleasure that can serve as a lever.

The fortieth is to despise the free lunch. What is offered free usually carries a trick or a hidden obligation, and paying one's own way keeps one clear of gratitude and guilt.

Bait and disarming

The eighth law is to make other people come to you, using bait if necessary, because whoever is drawn onto another's ground has given up their own plans.

The twelfth is to use selective honesty and generosity to disarm: one sincere act or a well-timed gift covers a great deal of deception.

The twenty-first is to play a sucker to catch a sucker, seeming less clever than the person one means to outwit.

The twenty-second is the surrender tactic: when weaker, yield rather than fight for honour's sake, and use the time to recover and to wait for the stronger side to tire.

The thirty-first is to control the options, so that the other person chooses freely among choices that all serve the one who offered them.

Fear and force

The fifteenth law is to crush an enemy totally, because an enemy left half beaten recovers and seeks revenge.

The seventeenth is to keep others in suspended terror by cultivating an air of unpredictability, so that they can never settle or prepare.

The eighteenth warns against building fortresses: isolation feels safe but cuts one off from information, so it is better to stay among people.

The twenty-third is to concentrate one's forces, on one aim and on one strong patron, because intensity defeats extent.

The thirty-ninth is to stir up the waters to catch fish: stay calm oneself and provoke the other side into anger, which clouds their judgement.

Timing and boldness

The twenty-eighth law is to enter action with boldness, since hesitation shows and infects the act, while audacity covers its own mistakes.

The twenty-ninth is to plan all the way to the end, foreseeing the consequences, the obstacles and the turns of fortune before beginning.

The thirty-fifth is to master the art of timing: never seem hurried, be patient, and strike when the moment is ripe.

The thirty-sixth is to disdain what one cannot have. Attention given to a petty irritation or a lost prize enlarges it, and ignoring it is the best revenge.

The forty-seventh is not to go past the mark one aimed for: in victory, learn when to stop.

Groups, mirrors and change

The forty-second law is to strike the shepherd so that the sheep will scatter: trouble in a group often comes from one strong person, and isolating that person breaks the group.

The forty-fourth is the mirror effect: imitate an opponent's words or conduct, which can disarm them, flatter them or infuriate them.

The forty-fifth is to preach the need for change but never to reform too much at once, because people cling to their habits.

The forty-eighth, the last, is to assume formlessness: keep no fixed shape or visible plan for an opponent to grasp, and move like water.

Reading it as a field guide

Greene writes as a describer, and his reversals admit that nearly every law has a season when its opposite is wiser. Several of the laws give counsel that needs no deceit at all: guard your name, plan to the end, master your temper, pay your own way, and know when to stop.

The rest are read in this house as a list of what may be done to a reader. Most of them need a target who is flattered, hurried, isolated, indebted, frightened or dreaming, and each of those states can be noticed in oneself. That noticing is the defence. A person who finds such laws being worked on them, steadily and to their harm, should tell someone they trust.