Conspiracy: A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire's Secret Plot to Destroy a Media Empire

by Ryan Holiday

“What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

Discourses on Livy.

W. S. Trow

“It’s OK to Be a Hater Because Everything Is Bad.”

Never fight a battle against someone who buys ink by the barrel. It’s easier to just let the whole thing

He venerated privacy, in creating space for weirdos and the politically incorrect to do what they

The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World

“Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do one thousand times more damage in war than audacity”

they might like to put in their bodies. He sees oppression

Napoleon’s dictum for the general-in-chief is that he “must not allow himself to be elated by good news or depressed by bad.”

Britain’s “secret means” prior to D-Day was a grab bag of unrelated, independent tricks and moves. It was about creating an impression, about keeping the Nazis off balance and defensive on a second front for as long as possible. Some of their ruses and commando operations worked, some didn’t—but they had a cumulative effect, like the bullfighter harassing the bull, letting the adrenaline course through the animal’s veins, exhausting it until the opportune moment when the sword can be slid into the spine.

Remember, after David fells Goliath with his well-placed stone, that’s not the end of it. Then began the gruesome work of hacking off the giant’s head with the man’s own sword. The point is: you can’t leave them even an inch to come back at you.