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“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.”
The only means to gain one’s ends with people are force and cunning. Love also, they say; but that is to wait for sunshine, and life needs every moment.
Impatience, on the other hand, only makes you look weak. It is a principal impediment to power.
Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.
Never trust anyone completely and study everyone, including friends and loved ones.
Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.
Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies. Voltaire, 1694-1778
Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.
But the human tongue is a beast that few can master.
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
Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.
It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900
Everybody steals in commerce and industry. I’ve stolen a lot myself. But I know how to steal. Thomas Edison, 1847-1931
There is much to be known, life is short, and life is not life without knowledge. It is therefore an excellent device to acquire knowledge from everybody. Thus, by the sweat of another’s brow, you win the reputation of being an oracle. (Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)
words have that insidious ability to be interpreted according to the other person’s mood and insecurities.
Absence diminishes minor passions and inflames great ones, as the wind douses a candle and fans a fire.
La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680
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?”’ Mulla jami, quoted in ldries Shah’s Caravan of Dreams, 1968
The Sun. It can only be appreciated by its absence. The longer the days of rain, the more the sun is craved. But too many hot days and the sun overwhelms. Learn to keep yourself obscure and make people demand your return.
Remember: In the beginning, make yourself not scarce but omnipresent. Only what is seen, appreciated, and loved will be missed in its absence.
You can never be sure who you are dealing with. A man who is of little importance and means today can be a person of power tomorrow. We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget an insult.
There is nothing to be gained by insulting a person unnecessarily. Swallow the impulse to offend, even if the other person seems weak.
Second, never trust appearances. Anyone with a serpent’s heart can use a show of kindness to cloak it; a person who is blustery on the outside is often really a coward. Learn to see through appearances and their contradictions. Never trust the version that people give of themselves—it is utterly unreliable.
Perfection resides in quality, not quantity.
what is obvious is often ignored or unappreciated.
But we can all control our unpleasant qualities and obscure them when necessary.
Never imagine that skill and talent are all that matter. In court the courtier’s art is more important than his talent; never spend so much time on your studies that you neglect your social skills. And the greatest skill of all is the ability to make the master look more talented than those around him.
As Diderot said, the bad actor is the one who is always sincere.
One should not be too straightforward. Go and see the forest. The straight trees are cut down, the crooked ones are left standing.
To become the founder of a new religion one must be psychologically infallible in one’s knowledge of a certain average type of souls who have not yet recognized that they belong together. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, 1844-1900
Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived. NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, 1469-1527
Look to the end, no matter what it is you are considering. Often enough, God gives a man a glimpse of happiness, and then utterly ruins him.
hun.
Grammar error
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.
Things can easily be settled at the outset, but not so later on. In many cases, the remedy itself is the cause of the disease: to let things be is not the least satisfactory of life’s rules.
It is also well to avoid correcting people’s mistakes in conversation, however good your intentions may be; for it is easy to offend people, and difficult, if not impossible to mend them.
For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find. Niccolò Machiavelli, in a letter to Francesco Gnicciardini, May 17, 1521
The men who have changed the universe have never gotten there by working on leaders, but rather by moving the masses. Working on leaders is the method of intrigue and only leads to secondary results. Working on the masses, however, is the stroke of genius that changes the face of the world. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 1769-1821
In the game of power, you are surrounded by people who have absolutely no reason to help you unless it is in their interest to do so.
The doctor should be opaque to his patients, and like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him. SIGMUND FREUD, 1856-1939
Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.
The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory. Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821
In evolution, largeness is often the first step toward extinction. What is immense and bloated has no mobility, but must constantly feed itself. The unintelligent are often seduced into believing that size connotes power, the bigger the better.
