Robert Greene Flashcards
1
Q
Do not leave your reputation to chance or gossip; it is your life’s artwork, and you must craft it, hone it, and display it with the care of an artist.
A
Robert Greene
2
Q
Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.
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Robert Greene
3
Q
There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous.
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Robert Greene
4
Q
“Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter”
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
Matthew 26:31
Trouble in a group often starts with a single individual who stirs the pot. You need to stop them before others succumb to their influence. Neutralize their influence by isolating or exposing them. Their followers will scatter.
5
Q
But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
6
Q
“Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.
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Voltaire
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
7
Q
Keep your friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
8
Q
Never rush into the waiting arms of the first person who seems to like you. That is not seduction but insecurity.
A
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
9
Q
Giving too much can be a sign of desperation, as if you were trying to buy someone.
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Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
10
Q
You must learn to stir people’s curiosity by letting them glimpse something in your private life.
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Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
11
Q
Exhibit remarkable confidence and people will think your confidence comes from real knowledge. You will create a self-fulfilling prophecy: people’s belief in you will translate into actions that help realize your visions.
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Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
12
Q
Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
13
Q
For the future, the motto is, “No days unalert.
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
14
Q
Despise The Free Lunch
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
Use money and generosity strategically to achieve your goals. Remember that everything has a price, and don’t accept “free gifts.” But use the desire for a “free lunch” to deceive others. Use gifts to build a reputation of generosity, which creates an aura or power, and also to obligate people to you.
15
Q
“When our emotions are engaged, we often have trouble seeing things as they are.
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Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
16
Q
“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content, The quiet mind is richer than a crown…”
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Robert Greene, 16th Century Poet, Farewell to Folly
17
Q
A Prince asked the dying Spanish statesman, “Does your Excellency forgive all your enemies?” “I do not have to forgive all my enemies,” answered the stateman, “I have had them all shot.
A
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
18
Q
Everyone has doubts and insecurities? about their body, their self-worth, their sexuality. If your seduction appeals exclusively to the physical, you will stir up these doubts and make your targets self-conscious. Instead, lure them out of their insecurities by making them focus on something sublime and spiritual: a religious experience, a lofty work of art, the occult. Lost in a spiritual mist, the target will feel light and uninhibited. Deepen the effect of your seduction by making its sexual culmination seem like the spiritual union of two souls.
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Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
19
Q
“People are more complicated than the masks they wear in society.”
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
20
Q
Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated.
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Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
21
Q
12–Lose Battles, But Win The War: Grand Strategy Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. Focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.
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Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War
22
Q
The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.
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Robert Greene, Mastery
23
Q
No one is really going to help you or give you direction. In fact, the odds are against you.
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Robert Greene
24
Q
The key is that you must already have some deeply held values; that part cannot be faked, at least not without risking accusations of charlatanry that will destroy your charisma in the long run. The next step is to show, as simply and subtly as possible, that you live what you believe. Finally, the appearance of being mild and unassuming can eventually turn into charisma, as long as you seem completely comfortable with it.
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Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
25
Purpose. If people believe you have a plan, that you know where you are going, they will follow you instinctively The direction does not matter: pick a cause, an ideal, a vision and show that you will not sway from your goal. People will imagine that your confidence comes from something real.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
26
Sexuality is extremely disruptive. The insecurities and emotions it stirs up can often cut short a relationship that would otherwise be deeper and longer lasting.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
27
The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.
Robert Greene, Mastery
28
Never whine, never complain, never try to justify yourself.
“Never whine, never complain, never try to justify yourself.”
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
29
Person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
30
And no matter how hard she tries to distance herself from it, the taint of being easy always follows.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
“
31
The key to power, then, is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
32
Actually, your past successes are your biggest obstacle: every battle, every war, is different, and you cannot assume that what worked before will work today.
Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War
33
As Gracin said, “The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
34
Never argue. In society nothing must be discussed; give only results. (Benjamin Disraeli, 1804–1881)
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
35
If you allow yourself to learn who you really are by paying attention to that voice and force within you, then you can become what you “were fated to become—an individual, a Master.”
Robert Greene, Mastery
36
Power is a game, and in games you do not judge your opponents by their intentions but by the effects of their actions.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
37
Religion is the great balm of existence because it takes us outside ourselves, connects us to something larger.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
38
Remember: obvious flirting will reveal your intentions too clearly. Better to be ambiguous and even contradictory, frustrating at the same time that you stimulate.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
39
Self-esteem is critical in seduction. (Your attitude toward yourself is read by the other person in subtle and unconscious ways.) Low self-esteem repels, confidence and self-sufficiency attract. The less you seem to need other people, the more likely others will be drawn to you.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
40
Your greatest power in seduction is your ability to turn away, to make others come after you, delaying their satisfaction.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
41
Remember: it is the form that matters, not the content. The less your targets focus on what you say, and the more on how it makes them feel, the more seductive your effect. Give your words a lofty, spiritual, literary flavor the better to insinuate desire in your unwitting victims.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
42
Successful seductions begin with your character, your ability to radiate some quality that attracts people and stirs their emotions in a way that is beyond their control.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
43
There is too little mystery in the world; too many people say exactly what they feel or want.
Robert Greene, quote from The Art of Seduction
44
Sadness of any sort is also seductive, particularly if it seems deep-rooted, even spiritual, rather than needy or pathetic—it makes people come to you.
Robert Greene, quote from The Art of Seduction
45
The Shadow. It cannot be grasped. Chase your shadow and it will, flee; turn your back on it and it will follow you. It is also a person’s dark side, the thing that makes them mysterious. After they have given us pleasure, the shadow of their withdrawal makes us yearn for their return, much as clouds make us yearn for the sun.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
46
Religion humanizes this universe, makes us feel important and loved. We are not animals governed by uncontrollable drives, animals that die for no apparent reason, but creatures made in the image of supreme being.
Robert Greene, quote from The Art of Seduction
47
The key to such power is ambiguity. In a society where the roles everyone plays are obvious, the refusal to conform to any standard will excite interest. Be both masculine and feminine, impudent and charming, subtle and outrageous. Let other people worry about being socially acceptable; those types are a dime a dozen, and you are after a power greater than they can imagine.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
48
Religion is the great balm of existence because it takes us outside ourselves, connects us to something larger.
Robert Greene, quote from The Art of Seduction
49
I give my mind the liberty to follow the first wise or foolish idea that presents itself.
Robert Greene, quote from The Art of Seduction
50
I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
51
If no resistances or obstacles face you, you must create them. No seduction can proceed without them.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
52
Desire is both imitative (we like what others like) and competitive (we want to take away from others what they have). As children, we wanted to monopolize the attention of a parent, to draw it away from other siblings. This sense of rivalry... makes people compete for the attention.
Robert Greene, quote from The Art of Seduction
53
Every seduction has two elements that you must analyze and understand: first, yourself and what is seductive about you; and second, your target and the actions that will penetrate their defenses and create surrender.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
54
Seduction is a game of psychology, not beauty, and it is within the grasp of any person to become a master at the game. All that is required is that you look at the world differently, through the eyes of a seducer.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
55
Our culture depends in many ways on the creation of standards and conventions that we all must adhere to. These conventions are often expressed in terms of opposites— good and evil, beautiful and ugly, painful and pleasurable, rational and irrational, intellectual and sensual. Believing in these opposites gives our world a sense of cohesion and comfort. To imagine that something can be intellectual & sensual, pleasurable & painful, real and unreal, good and bad, masculine and feminine is too chaotic and disturbing for us. Life, however, is more fluid and complex; our desires and experiences do not fit neatly into these tidy ccategories.
Robert Greene, Mastery
56
Your attitude toward yourself is read by the other person in subtle and unconscious ways.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
57
Her seductive power, however, did not lie in her looks [...]. In reality, Cleopatra was physically unexceptional and had no political power, yet both Caesar and Antony, brave and clever men, saw none of this. What they saw was a woman who constantly transformed herself before their eyes, a one-woman spectacle.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
58
Her dress and makeup changed from day to day, but always gave her a heightened, goddesslike appearance. Her words could be banal enough, but were spoken so sweetly that listeners would find themselves remembering not what she said but how she said it.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
59
There is nothing more effective in seduction than making the seduced think that they are the ones doing the seducing.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
60
Creating a False Sense of Security, Approach Indirectly
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
61
Once you have chosen the right victim, you must get his or her attention and stir desire. To move from friendship to love can win success without calling attention to itself as a maneuver.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
62
The first move to master is simple: once you have chosen the right person, you must make the target come to you.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
63
First, your friendly conversations with your targets will bring you valuable information about their characters, their tastes, their weaknesses, the childhood yearnings that govern their adult behavior.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
64
Second, by spending time with your targets you can make them comfortable with you.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
65
Then, surprise their expectations with an errant touch or suggestion, make them now interested.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
66
Too much attention early on will actually just suggest insecurity, and raise doubts as to your motives. Worst of all, it gives your targets no room for imagination. Take a step back; let the thoughts you are provoking come to them as if they were their own.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
67
In all arenas of life, you should never give the impression that you are angling for something— that will raise a resistance that you will never lower. Learn to approach people from the side.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
68
The right victims are those for whom you can fill a void, who see in you something exotic.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
69
To leave people who are inaccessible to you alone is a wise path; you cannot seduce everyone.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
70
Never rush into the waiting arms of the first person who seems to like you. That is not seduction but insecurity.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
71
Never be distracted by people’s glamorous portraits of themselves and their lives; search and dig for what really imprisons them.
”
— Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
72
Your task as a seducer is to bring some flesh and blood into someone’s fantasy life by embodying a fantasy figure, or creating a scenario resembling that person’s dreams.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
73
Separate them from their environment physically, emotionally, and mentally, so they can become further engrossed with you.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
74
Behave in a way that leaves them wondering, What are you up to? Doing something they do not expect from you will give them a delightful sense of spontaneity— they will not be able to foresee what comes next.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
75
There are all kinds of calculated surprises you can spring on your victims— sending a letter from out of the blue, showing up unexpectedly, taking them to a place they have never been. But best of all are surprises that reveal something new about your character.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
76
Reliability is fine for drawing people in, but stay reliable and you stay a bore. Dogs are reliable, a seducer is not.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
77
Use the Demonic Power of Words to Sow Confusion
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
78
Inflame people’s emotions with loaded phrases, flatter them, comfort their insecurities, envelop them in fantasies, sweet words, and promises, and not only will they listen to you, they will lose their Will to resist you.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
79
A woman was beautiful, yet lacked confidence in her own wit and intelligence? He made sure to say that he was bewitched not by her beauty but by her mind.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
80
Pay Attention to Detail
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
81
Poeticize Your Presence
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
82
You can be dangerous, naughty, even somewhat vulgar, depending on the tastes of your victim. But never be ordinary or limited. In poetry (as opposed to reality), anything is possible.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
83
The only thing that cannot be idealized is mediocrity, but there is nothing seductive about mediocrity. There is no possible way to seduce without creating some kind of fantasy and poeticization.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
84
Disarm Through Strategic Weakness and Vulnerability
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
85
The best way to cover your tracks is to make the other person feel superior and stronger. If you seem to be weak, vulnerable, enthralled by the other person, and unable to control yourself, you will make your actions look more natural, less calculated.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
86
Remember: what is natural to your character is inherently seductive. A person’s vulnerability, what they seem to be unable to control, is often what is most seductive about them.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
87
A woman, for instance, may be attracted by a man’s strength and self-confidence, but too much of it can create fear, seeming unnatural, even ugly.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
88
Confuse Desire and Reality— The Perfect Illusion
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
89
Find that childhood insecurity, that lack in their life, and you hold the key to tempting them. Their weakness may be greed, vanity, boredom, some deeply repressed desire, a hunger for forbidden fruit. They signal it in little details that elude their conscious control: their style of clothing, an offhand comment.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
90
As the serpent tempted Eve with the promise of forbidden knowledge, you must awaken a desire in your targets that they cannot control. Find that weakness of theirs, that fantasy that has yet to be realized, and hint that you can lead them toward it.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
91
Create Temptation
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
92
Play by their rules, enjoy what they enjoy, adapt yourself to their moods. In doing so you will stroke their deep-rooted narcissism and lower their defenses
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
93
Enter Their Spirit
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
94
There is no known defense, however, against insinuation— the art of planting ideas in people’s minds by dropping elusive hints that take root days later, even appearing to them as their own idea. Make everything suggestive.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
95
Master the Art of Insinuation
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
96
Make people anxious about the future, make them depressed, make them question their identity, make them sense the boredom that gnaws at their life. The ground is prepared. The seeds of seduction can be sown.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
97
People are always susceptible to being seduced, because in fact everyone lacks a sense of completeness, feels something missing deep inside. Bring their doubts and anxieties to the surface and they can be led and lured to follow you.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
98
Create a need, stir anxiety and discontent
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
99
Men who believe that a rakish reputation will make women fear or distrust them, and should be played down, are quite wrong. On the contrary, it makes them more attractive.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
100
When people’s vanity is at risk, you can make them do whatever you want. According to Stendhal, if there is a woman you are interested in, pay attention to her sister. That will stir a triangular desire.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
101
What is obvious and striking may attract their attention at first, but that attention is often short-lived; in the long run, ambiguity is much more potent. Most of us are much too obvious —instead, be hard to figure out.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
102
To deepen their interest, you must hint at a complexity that cannot be grasped in a week or two.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
103
People who are outwardly distant or shy are often better targets than extroverts. They are dying to be drawn out, and still waters run deep.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
104
On the other hand, you should generally avoid people who are preoccupied with business or work— seduction demands attention, and busy people have too little space in their minds for you to occupy.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
105
Appear to Be an Object of Desire: Create Triangles
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
106
Successful seduction starts with who you are and the type of seductive energy you express. It requires creating yourself, or refining yourself, in one of the seducer categories.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
107
Remember: seduction is a game of attention, of slowly filling the other person’s mind with your presence. Distance and inattention will create the opposite effect, and can be used as a tactic when the need arises.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
108
Experienced hunters do not choose their prey by how easily it is caught; they want the thrill of the chase, a life-and-death struggle—the fiercer the better.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
109
People with a lot of time on their hands are extremely susceptible to seduction. They have mental space for you to fill.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
110
The spider has no need to chase for food, or even to move. It quietly sits in the corner, waiting for its victims to come to it on their own, and ensnare themselves in the web.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
111
What will seduce a person is the effort we expend on their behalf, showing how much we care, how much they are worth. Leaving things to chance is a recipe for disaster, and reveals that we do not take love and romance very seriously.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
112
“Seducers take pleasure in performing and are not weighed down by their identity, or by some need to be themselves, or to be natural.”
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
113
Every seduction has two elements that you must analyze and understand: first, yourself and what is seductive about you; and second, your target and the actions that will penetrate their defenses and create surrender.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
114
I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction
115
When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword. Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.
When you meet a master swordsman, show him your sword. When you meet a man who is not a poet, do not show him your poem.
Robert Greene,
Lin-Chi
116
Displaying anger and emotion are signs of weakness; you cannot control yourself, so how can you control anything.
Robert Greene
117
Always say less than necessary.
Robert Greene
118
What will see you through is not passion, but the sense of deep connection to what you are meant to accomplish, to a sense of destiny in life.
Robert Greene
119
Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
120
