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### Book:in the adult world, and they use any means available to get their way.

### Book:Genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power, and are often

### Book:horribly effective at the game, since they are not hindered by reflection.

### Book:Once again, those who make a show or display of innocence are the least

### Book:innocent of all.

### Book:The only means to gain one’s ends with people are force and cunning.

### Book:Love also. they say; but that is to wait for sunshine, and life needs every

### Book:moment.

### Book:JOHANN VON GOEIHE, 1749-1832

### Book:You can recognize these supposed nonplayers by the way they flaunt

### Book:their moral qualities, their piety, their exquisite sense of justice. But since

### Book:all of us hunger for power, and almost all of our actions are aimed at

### Book:gaining it, the nonplayers are merely throwing dust in our eyes,distracting us from their power plays with their air of moral superiority.

### Book:If you observe them closely, you will see in fact that they are often the

### Book:ones most skillful at indirect manipulation, even if some of them practice

### Book:it unconsciously. And they greatly resent any publicizing of the tactics

### Book:they use every day.

### Book:The arrow shot by the archer may or may not kill a single person. But

### Book:stratagems devised by a wise man can kill even babes in the womb.

### Book:KAUTILYA, INDIAN PHILOSOPHER, THIRD CENTURY B.C.

### Book:If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped inside it,

### Book:there is no use in trying to opt out of the game. That will only render you

### Book:powerless, and powerlessness will make you miserable. Instead of

### Book:struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and

### Book:feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power. In fact, the better you are

### Book:at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person

### Book:you become. By following the route of the perfect courtier (see Law 24)

### Book:you learn to make others feel better about themselves, becoming a source

### Book:of pleasure to them. They will grow dependent on your abilities and

### Book:desirous of your presence. By mastering the 48 laws in this book, you

### Book:spare others the pain that comes from bungling with power—by playing

### Book:with fire without knowing its properties. If the game of power is

### Book:inescapable, better to be an artist than a denier or a bungler.

### Book:Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the

### Book:world, a shifting of perspective. It takes effort and years of practice, for

### Book:much of the game may not come naturally. Certain basic skills are

### Book:required, and once you master these skills you will be able to apply the

### Book:laws of power more easily.

### Book:The most important of these skills, and power’s crucial foundation, is

### Book:the ability to master your emotions. An emotional response to a situation

### Book:is the single greatest barrier to power, a mistake that will cost you a lot

### Book:more than any temporary satisfaction you might gain by expressing your

### Book:feelings. Emotions cloud reason, and if you cannot see the situation

### Book:clearly, you cannot prepare for and respond to it with any degree of

### Book:control.

### Book:Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it clouds

### Book:your vision the most. It also has a ripple effect that invariably makes

### Book:situations less controllable and heightens your enemy’s resolve. If you

### Book:are trying to destroy an enemy who has hurt you, far better to keep him

### Book:off-guard by feigning friendliness than showing your anger.Love and affection are also potentially destructive, in that they blind

### Book:you to the often self-serving interests of those whom you least suspect of

### Book:playing a power game. You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling

### Book:them, and you should not try. But you should be careful about how you

### Book:express them, and most important, they should never influence your

### Book:plans and strategies in any way.

### Book:Related to mastering your emotions is the ability to distance yourself

### Book:from the present moment and think objectively about the past and future.

### Book:Like Janus, the double-faced Roman deity and guardian of all gates and

### Book:doorways, you must be able to look in both directions at once, the better

### Book:to handle danger from wherever it comes. Such is the face you must

### Book:create for yourself-one face looking continuously to the future and the

### Book:other to the past.

### Book:I thought to myself with what means, with what deceptions, with how

### Book:many varied arts, with what industry a man sharpens his wits to deceive

### Book:another, and through these variations the world is made more beautiful.

### Book:FRANCESCO VETTORI, CONTEMPORARY AND FRIEND OF

### Book:MACHIAVELLI, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY

### Book:For the future, the motto is, “No days unalert.” Nothing should catch

### Book:you by surprise because you are constantly imagining problems before

### Book:they arise. Instead of spending your time dreaming of your plan’s happy

### Book:ending, you must work on calculating every possible permutation and

### Book:pitfall that might emerge in it. The further you see, the more steps ahead

### Book:you plan, the more powerful you become.

### Book:The other face of Janus looks constantly to the past—though not to

### Book:remember past hurts or bear grudges. That would only curb your power.

### Book:Half of the game is learning how to forget those events in the past that

### Book:eat away at you and cloud your reason. The real purpose of the

### Book:backward-glancing eye is to educate yourself constantly—you look at

### Book:the past to learn from those who came before you. (The many historical

### Book:examples in this book will greatly help that process.) Then, having

### Book:looked to the past, you look closer at hand, to your own actions and those

### Book:of your friends. This is the most vital school you can learn from, because

### Book:it comes from personal experience.

### Book:There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad,

### Book:there are only circumstances. The superior man espouses events and

### Book:circumstances in order to guide them. If there were principles and fixed

### Book:laws, nations would not change them as we change our shirts and a man

### Book:can not be expected to be wiser than an entire nation.HONORÉ DE BALZAC, 1799-1850

### Book:You begin by examining the mistakes you have made in the past, the

### Book:ones that have most grievously held you back. You analyze them in

### Book:terms of the 48 laws of power, and you extract from them a lesson and an

### Book:oath: “I shall never repeat such a mistake; I shall never fall into such a

### Book:trap again.” If you can evaluate and observe yourself in this way, you can

### Book:learn to break the patterns of the past—an immensely valuable skill.

### Book:Power requires the ability to play with appearances. To this end you

### Book:must learn to wear many masks and keep a bag full of deceptive tricks.

### Book:Deception and masquerade should not be seen as ugly or immoral. All

### Book:human interaction requires deception on many levels, and in some ways

### Book:what separates humans from animals is our ability to lie and deceive. In

### Book:Greek myths, in India’s Mahabharata cycle, in the Middle Eastern epic of