OpenOfffice version Flashcards
Law 1
Never outshine the master
Make those above you feel superior. Do not show your talents too much, it’ll make them insecure.
Make the master appear more brilliant than they are
Law 2
Never put too much trust in friends, learn to use enemies
Friends will quickly betray you as they can easily be roused to envy.
Hire former enemies, they’ll be loyal as they have more to prove.
Law 3
Conceal your intentions
Keep people off-balance. They cannot prepare if they don’t know. Guide them down the wrong path.
Law 4
Always say less than necessary
When trying to impress, the more you say the more common you look and less in control.
Be vague.
Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.
Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.
The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Law 5
So much depends on reputation – guard it with your life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power.
Reputation alone will make you win.
Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations.
Destroy enemies by attacking their reputation. Then stand aside and let the public hang them.
Law 6
Court attention at all cost
Everything is judged by appearance, what is unseen counts for nothing.
Never get lost in a crowd.
Be mysterious, appear more colorful than the masses.
Law 7
Let others to do the work for you, but always take credit
Use the skills of others to do the work for you, never do yourself what others can do for you.
Your efficiency will appear god-like.
Law 8
Make other people come to you – use bait if necessary
When you force others to act, you’re in control.
It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process.
Lure with gains, then attack.
Law 9
Win through your actions, never through argument
You can only win a Pyrrhic victory through argument.
The resentment you will stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion.
It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
Law 10
Infection: Avoid the unhappy and the unlucky
You’ll die from other’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as diseases.
The unfortunate draw misfortune on themselves and will draw it on you.
Associate with the happy and fortunate.
Law 11
Learn to keep people dependent on you
To maintain independence you must be needed and wanted.
The more you’re relied on, the more freedom you have.
Make people depend on you for happiness.
Never teach them enough so they can do without you.
Law 12
Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim
One sincere move will cover over a dozen dishonest ones.
Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.
Law 13
When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy
Do not remind people of past deeds.
Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Law 14
Pose as a friend, work as a spy
Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself.
In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.
Law 15
Crush your enemy totally
More is lost through stopping halfway.
The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.
Law 16
Use absence to increase respect and honor
Too much circulation makes the price go down.
If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired.
You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.
Law 17
Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability
Being predictable gives control to others.
Behavior that isn’t consistent will wear people out, and they’ll stop trying to explain things.
When used to the extreme, you’ll intimidate and terrorize.
Law 18
Do not build fortresses to protect yourself – isolation is dangerous
Isolation cuts you off from valuable information.
Its better to mingle, find allies.
You are shielded from your enemy in a crowd.
Law 19
Know who you’re dealing with – do not offend the wrong person
Never assume everyone will react the same way.
Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.
Law 20
Do not commit to anyone
Fools rush to pick a side.
Do not commit to a cause but yourself
Maintain independence
Make people chase you and play people against one another
Law 21
Play a sucker to catch a sucker- seem dumber than your mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next person.
The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are.
Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Law 22
Use the surrender tactic: transformer weakness into power
When you’re weaker, never fight just for honor but surrender.
Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane.
Do not give them the satisfaction to win, surrender.
Turn the other cheek to infuriate them, use surrender as a tool of power.
Law 23
Concentrate your forces
Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point.
Find a fat cow that’ll give you milk for a long time
Law 24
Play the perfect courtier
He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner.
Assert power gracefully to avoid jealousy.
Law 25
Re-create yourself
Create an identity that commands attention and never bores.
Be the master of your own image rather than letting others or society define it for you.
Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.
Law 26
Keep your hands clean
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds.
Use others as scapegoats to disguise your involvement
Law 27
Play on people’s need to believe to create a cultlike following
People want to believe in something
Become the focal point of this and offer them a cause, a new faith
Keep your words vague but full of promise
Emphasize enthusiasm over rationality
Give your new disciples rituals to perform and ask them to make sacrifices
Law 28
Enter action with boldness
If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution.
Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.
Everyone admires boldness, no one honors the timid
Law 29
Plan all the way to the end
The ending is everything.
Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others.
Guide fortune by thinking far ahead
Law 30
Make your accomplishments seem effortless
Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease.
All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed.
When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more.
Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions.
Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.
Law 31
Control the opinions: get others to play with the cards you deal
The best deceptions seem to give the other person a choice.
Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose.
Law 32
Play to people’s fantasies
The truth is unpleasant, avoid it.
Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them.
There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.
Law 33
Discover each man’s thumbscrew
Everyone has a weakness,
That weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure.
Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
Law 34
Be royal in your own fashion: act like a king to be treated like one
The way you carry yourself determines how you’re treated
Appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you
Kings respect themselves and inspire the same in others
By acting confident you make yourself destined to wear a crown
Law 35
Master the art of timing
Never seem in a hurry, always seem patient
Sniff out the spirit of the times, find the trends that’ll give you power
Learn to stand back when not ready, and then strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
Law 36
Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them if the best revenge
Acknowledging petty problems gives them existence
When you acknowledge an enemy you make them stronger
The more you a mistake visible, the worse it gets
If you want something but can’t have it, disdain it
The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem
Law 37
Create compelling spectacles
Striking imagery and symbolic gestures create the auro of power and people respond
Stage spectacles for those around you and heighten your presence
Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.
Law 38
Think as you like but behave like others
By flaunting your unconventional ways and ideas people will only think you want attention
They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch.
Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.
Law 39
Stir up waters to catch fish
Anger and emotion is counterproductive
Stay calm and objective
Make enemies emotional while you stay calm. Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.
Rattle your enemies.
Law 40
Despise the free lunch.
What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation.
Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.
Law 41
Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what’s next
If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making:
Gain power by shining in your own way
Law 42
Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter
Trouble can be traced to a single individual
These people will influence others
Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable.
Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.
Law 43
Work on the hearts and minds of others
Coercion will work against you after a while.
Seduce others into wanting to move in your direction
Seduce others by operating on their individual psychologies and weaknesses
Soften them by working their emotions and what they fear
Ignore the hearts and minds and they will grow to hate you
Law 44
Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect
When you mirror exactly what your enemies do, they cannot figure out your strategy
The mirror effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact
Hold a mirror to their psyches and you’ll seduce them and they’ll think they share your values
Mirror their actions and they learn lessons
Law 45
Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once
Everyone wants change but too much is traumatic
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.
Law 46
Never appear too perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies.
It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable.
Law 47
Do not go past the mark you aimed for; in victory know when to stop
In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head.
Set a goal, achieve it, then stop
Law 48
Assume formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack.
Stay adaptable and on the move
Accept that nothing is certain and no law fixed
The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order.
Never outshine the master
Make those above you feel superior. Do not show your talents too much, it’ll make them insecure.
Make the master appear more brilliant than they are
Law 1
Never put too much trust in friends, learn to use enemies
Friends will quickly betray you as they can easily be roused to envy.
Hire former enemies, they’ll be loyal as they have more to prove.
Law 2
Conceal your intentions
Keep people off-balance. They cannot prepare if they don’t know. Guide them down the wrong path.
Law 3
Always say less than necessary
When trying to impress, the more you say the more common you look and less in control.
Be vague.
Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.
Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.
The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Law 4
So much depends on reputation – guard it with your life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power.
Reputation alone will make you win.
Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations.
Destroy enemies by attacking their reputation. Then stand aside and let the public hang them.
Law 5
Court attention at all cost
Everything is judged by appearance, what is unseen counts for nothing.
Never get lost in a crowd.
Be mysterious, appear more colorful than the masses.
Law 6
Let others to do the work for you, but always take credit
Use the skills of others to do the work for you, never do yourself what others can do for you.
Your efficiency will appear god-like.
Law 7
Make other people come to you – use bait if necessary
When you force others to act, you’re in control.
It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process.
Lure with gains, then attack.
Law 8
Win through your actions, never through argument
You can only win a Pyrrhic victory through argument.
The resentment you will stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion.
It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
Law 9
Infection: Avoid the unhappy and the unlucky
You’ll die from other’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as diseases.
The unfortunate draw misfortune on themselves and will draw it on you.
Associate with the happy and fortunate.
Law 10
Learn to keep people dependent on you
To maintain independence you must be needed and wanted.
The more you’re relied on, the more freedom you have.
Make people depend on you for happiness.
Never teach them enough so they can do without you.
Law 11
Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim
One sincere move will cover over a dozen dishonest ones.
Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.
Law 12
When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy
Do not remind people of past deeds.
Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Law 13
Pose as a friend, work as a spy
Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself.
In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.
Law 14
Crush your enemy totally
More is lost through stopping halfway.
The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.
Law 15
Use absence to increase respect and honor
Too much circulation makes the price go down.
If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired.
You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.
Law 16
Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability
Being predictable gives control to others.
Behavior that isn’t consistent will wear people out, and they’ll stop trying to explain things.
When used to the extreme, you’ll intimidate and terrorize.
Law 17
Do not build fortresses to protect yourself – isolation is dangerous
Isolation cuts you off from valuable information.
Its better to mingle, find allies.
You are shielded from your enemy in a crowd.
Law 18
Know who you’re dealing with – do not offend the wrong person
Never assume everyone will react the same way.
Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.
Law 19
Do not commit to anyone
Fools rush to pick a side.
Do not commit to a cause but yourself
Maintain independence
Make people chase you and play people against one another
Law 20
Play a sucker to catch a sucker- seem dumber than your mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next person.
The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are.
Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Law 21
Use the surrender tactic: transformer weakness into power
When you’re weaker, never fight just for honor but surrender.
Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane.
Do not give them the satisfaction to win, surrender.
Turn the other cheek to infuriate them, use surrender as a tool of power.
Law 22
Concentrate your forces
Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point.
Find a fat cow that’ll give you milk for a long time
Law 23
Play the perfect courtier
He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner.
Assert power gracefully to avoid jealousy.
Law 24
Re-create yourself
Create an identity that commands attention and never bores.
Be the master of your own image rather than letting others or society define it for you.
Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.
Law 25
Keep your hands clean
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds.
Use others as scapegoats to disguise your involvement
Law 26
Play on people’s need to believe to create a cultlike following
People want to believe in something
Become the focal point of this and offer them a cause, a new faith
Keep your words vague but full of promise
Emphasize enthusiasm over rationality
Give your new disciples rituals to perform and ask them to make sacrifices
Law 27
Enter action with boldness
If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution.
Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.
Everyone admires boldness, no one honors the timid
Law 28
Plan all the way to the end
The ending is everything.
Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others.
Guide fortune by thinking far ahead
Law 29
Make your accomplishments seem effortless
Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease.
All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed.
When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more.
Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions.
Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.
Law 30
Control the opinions: get others to play with the cards you deal
The best deceptions seem to give the other person a choice.
Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose.
Law 31
Play to people’s fantasies
The truth is unpleasant, avoid it.
Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them.
There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.
Law 32
Discover each man’s thumbscrew
Everyone has a weakness,
That weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure.
Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
Law 33
Be royal in your own fashion: act like a king to be treated like one
The way you carry yourself determines how you’re treated
Appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you
Kings respect themselves and inspire the same in others
By acting confident you make yourself destined to wear a crown
Law 34
Master the art of timing
Never seem in a hurry, always seem patient
Sniff out the spirit of the times, find the trends that’ll give you power
Learn to stand back when not ready, and then strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
Law 35
Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them if the best revenge
Acknowledging petty problems gives them existence
When you acknowledge an enemy you make them stronger
The more you a mistake visible, the worse it gets
If you want something but can’t have it, disdain it
The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem
Law 36
Create compelling spectacles
Striking imagery and symbolic gestures create the auro of power and people respond
Stage spectacles for those around you and heighten your presence
Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.
Law 37
Think as you like but behave like others
By flaunting your unconventional ways and ideas people will only think you want attention
They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch.
Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.
Law 38
Stir up waters to catch fish
Anger and emotion is counterproductive
Stay calm and objective
Make enemies emotional while you stay calm. Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.
Rattle your enemies.
Law 39
Despise the free lunch.
What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation.
Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.
Law 40
Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what’s next
If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making:
Gain power by shining in your own way
Law 41
Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter
Trouble can be traced to a single individual
These people will influence others
Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable.
Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.
Law 42
Work on the hearts and minds of others
Coercion will work against you after a while.
Seduce others into wanting to move in your direction
Seduce others by operating on their individual psychologies and weaknesses
Soften them by working their emotions and what they fear
Ignore the hearts and minds and they will grow to hate you
Law 43
Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect
When you mirror exactly what your enemies do, they cannot figure out your strategy
The mirror effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact
Hold a mirror to their psyches and you’ll seduce them and they’ll think they share your values
Mirror their actions and they learn lessons
Law 44
Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once
Everyone wants change but too much is traumatic
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.
Law 45
Never appear too perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies.
It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable.
Law 46
Do not go past the mark you aimed for; in victory know when to stop
In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head.
Set a goal, achieve it, then stop
Law 47
Assume formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack.
Stay adaptable and on the move
Accept that nothing is certain and no law fixed
The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order.
Law 48
