Quotes from Robert Greene

Human beings are immensely suggestible; their moods will easily spread to the people around them. In fact seduction depends on mimesis, on the conscious creation of a mood or feeling that is then reproduced by the other person. But hesitation and awkwardness are also contagious, and are deadly to seduction.

Second, you must convince yourself of the following: people get the mind and quality of brain that they deserve through their actions in life.

The world wants to assign you a role in life and once you except that role you are doomed.

This kind of feigned naturalness has countless applications in daily life, where nothing is more dangerous than looking smarter than the next person; the Natural pose is the perfect way to disguise your cleverness. But if you are uncontrollably childish and cannot turn it off, you run the risk of seeming pathetic, earning not sympathy but pity and disgust.

Strategy] is more than a science: it is the application of knowledge to practical life, the development of thought capable of modifying the original guiding idea in the light of ever-changing situations; it is the art of acting under the pressure of the most difficult conditions.

Persistence of little progress wins over brute force.

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. STRATEGIES

We happily follow Charismatics because we like to be led, particularly by people who promise adventure or prosperity. We lose ourselves in their cause, become emotionally attached to them, feel more alive by believing in them-we fall in love.

Van Gogh didn't paint for money either. He only sold two paintings in his whole lifetime. Robert:

You cannot hit two targets with one arrow. If your thoughts stray, you miss your enemies' heart. Mind and arrow must become one.

Aggression is deceptive: it inherently hides weakness. Aggressors cannot control their emotions.

A seducer does not turn the power off and on—every social and personal interaction is seen as a potential seduction. There is never a moment to waste.

In fact, the seducer sees the world as his or her bedroom.)

Seducers are never self-absorbed. Their gaze is directed outward, not inward. When they meet someone their first move is to get inside that person's skin, to see the world through their eyes.

Everything in daily life is hurried and improvised, and you need to offer something different. By taking your time and respecting the seductive process you will not only break down your victim's resistance, you will make them fall in love.

What separates Masters from others is often something surprisingly simple. Whenever we learn a skill, we frequently reach a point of frustration—what we are learning seems beyond our capabilities. Giving in to these feelings, we unconsciously quit on ourselves before we actually give up.

Leaders have always found it useful to have an enemy at their gates in times of trouble, distracting the public from their difficulties. In using your enemies to rally your troops, polarize them as far as possible: they will fight the more fiercely when they feel a little hatred. So exaggerate the differences between you and the enemy—draw the lines clearly.

Without enemies you will not know how or where to maneuver, and you will lose a sense of your limits, of how far you can go.

Real pleasure comes from overcoming challenges, feeling confidence in your abilities, gaining fluency in skills, and experiencing the power this brings. You develop patience. Boredom no longer signals the need for distraction, but rather the need for new challenges to conquer. Although

Remember: You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move. What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile engagement. Your pride is not involved.

Any titles, money, or privilege you inherit are actually hindrances. They delude you into believing you are owed respect.

Be brutal with the past, especially your own, and have no respect for the philosophies that are foisted on you from outside.

The passive ironic attitude is not cool or romantic, but pathetic and destructive.

Become who you are by learning who you are.