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### Book:Gilga mesh, it is the privilege of the gods to use deceptive arts; a great

### Book:man, Odysseus for instance, was judged by his ability to rival the

### Book:craftiness of the gods, stealing some of their divine power by matching

### Book:them in wits and deception. Deception is a developed art of civilization

### Book:and the most potent weapon in the game of power.

### Book:You cannot succeed at deception unless you take a somewhat

### Book:distanced approach to yourself—unless you can be many different

### Book:people, wearing the mask that the day and the moment require. With

### Book:such a flexible approach to all appearances, including your own, you lose

### Book:a lot of the inward heaviness that holds people down. Make your face as

### Book:malleable as the actor’s, work to conceal your intentions from others,

### Book:practice luring people into traps. Playing with appearances and mastering

### Book:arts of deception are among the aesthetic pleasures of life. They are also

### Book:key components in the acquisition of power.

### Book:If deception is the most potent weapon in your arsenal, then patience

### Book:in all things is your crucial shield. Patience will protect you from making

### Book:moronic blunders. Like mastering your emotions, patience is a skill—it

### Book:does not come naturally. But nothing about power is natural; power is

### Book:more godlike than anything in the natural world. And patience is the

### Book:supreme virtue of the gods, who have nothing but time. Everything good

### Book:will happen—the grass will grow again, if you give it time and see

### Book:several steps into the future. Impatience, on the other hand, only makes

### Book:you look weak. It is a principal impediment to power.

### Book:Power is essentially amoral and one of the most important skills to

### Book:acquire is the ability to see circumstances rather than good or evil. Power

### Book:is a game—this cannot be repeated too often—and in games you do not

### Book:judge your opponents by their intentions but by the effect of theiractions. You measure their strategy and their power by what you can see

### Book:and feel. How often are someone’s intentions made the issue only to

### Book:cloud and deceive! What does it matter if another player, your friend or

### Book:rival, intended good things and had only your interests at heart, if the

### Book:effects of his action lead to so much ruin and confusion? It is only

### Book:natural for people to cover up their actions with all kinds of

### Book:justifications, always assuming that they have acted out of goodness.

### Book:You must learn to inwardly laugh each time you hear this and never get

### Book:caught up in gauging someone’s intentions and actions through a set of

### Book:moral judgments that are really an excuse for the accumulation of power.

### Book:It is a game. Your opponent sits opposite you. Both of you behave as

### Book:gentlemen or ladies, observing the rules of the game and taking nothing

### Book:personally. You play with a strategy and you observe your opponent’s

### Book:moves with as much calmness as you can muster. In the end, you will

### Book:appreciate the politeness of those you are playing with more than their

### Book:good and sweet intentions. Train your eye to follow the results of their

### Book:moves, the outward circumstances, and do not be distracted by anything

### Book:else.

### Book:Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do not do, what

### Book:you do not allow yourself to get dragged into. For this skill you must

### Book:learn to judge all things by what they cost you. As Nietzsche wrote, “The

### Book:value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in

### Book:what one pays for it—what it costs us.” Perhaps you will attain your

### Book:goal, and a worthy goal at that, but at what price? Apply this standard to

### Book:everything, including whether to collaborate with other people or come

### Book:to their aid. In the end, life is short, opportunities are few, and you have

### Book:only so much energy to draw on. And in this sense time is as important a

### Book:consideration as any other. Never waste valuable time, or mental peace

### Book:of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.

### Book:Power is a social game. To learn and master it, you must develop the

### Book:ability to study and understand people. As the great seventeenth-century

### Book:thinker and courtier Baltasar Gracián wrote: “Many people spend time

### Book:studying the properties of animals or herbs; how much more important it

### Book:would be to study those of people, with whom we must live or die!” To

### Book:be a master player you must also be a master psychologist. You must

### Book:recognize motivations and see through the cloud of dust with which

### Book:people surround their actions. An understanding of people’s hidden

### Book:motives is the single greatest piece of knowledge you can have in

### Book:acquiring power. It opens up endless possibilities of deception,

### Book:seduction, and manipulation.People are of infinite complexity and you can spend a lifetime

### Book:watching them without ever fully understanding them. So it is all the

### Book:more important, then, to begin your education now. In doing so you must

### Book:also keep one principle in mind: Never discriminate as to whom you

### Book:study and whom you trust. Never trust anyone completely and study

### Book:everyone, including friends and loved ones.

### Book:Finally, you must learn always to take the indirect route to power.

### Book:Disguise your cunning. Like a billiard ball that caroms several times

### Book:before it hits its target, your moves must be planned and developed in the

### Book:least obvious way. By training yourself to be indirect, you can thrive in

### Book:the modern court, appearing the paragon of decency while being the

### Book:consummate manipulator.

### Book:Consider The 48 Laws of Power a kind of handbook on the arts of

### Book:indirection. The laws are based on the writings of men and women who

### Book:have studied and mastered the game of power. These writings span a

### Book:period of more than three thousand years and were created in

### Book:civilizations as disparate as ancient China and Renaissance Italy; yet they

### Book:share common threads and themes, together hinting at an essence of

### Book:power that has yet to be fully articulated. The 48 laws of power are the

### Book:distillation of this accumulated wisdom, gathered from the writings of

### Book:the most illustrious strategists (Sun-tzu, Clausewitz), statesmen

### Book:(Bismarck, Talleyrand), courtiers (Castiglione, Gracián), seducers

### Book:(Ninon de Lenclos, Casanova), and con artists (“Yellow Kid” Weil) in

### Book:history.

### Book:The laws have a simple premise: Certain actions almost always

### Book:increase one’s power (the observance of the law), while others decrease

### Book:it and even ruin us (the transgression of the law). These transgressions

### Book:and observances are illustrated by historical examples. The laws are

### Book:timeless and definitive.

### Book:The 48 Laws of Power can be used in several ways. By reading the

### Book:book straight through you can learn about power in general. Although

### Book:several of the laws may seem not to pertain directly to your life, in time

### Book:you will probably find that all of them have some application, and that in

### Book:fact they are interrelated. By getting an overview of the entire subject

### Book:you will best be able to evaluate your own past actions and gain a greater