Quotes from Robert Greene

Finally, you must learn always to

The lesson is simple: do not confuse a chummy, clublike atmosphere with team spirit and cohesion. Coddling your soldiers and acting as if everyone were equal will ruin discipline and promote the creation of factions. Victory will forge stronger bonds than superficial friendliness, and victory comes from discipline, training, and ruthlessly high standards.

Think Like a Writer

His approach in these cases was to imagine that each person, no matter how twisted, has a reason for what they've become, a logic that makes sense to them. In their own way, they are striving for fulfillment, but irrationally. By stepping back and imagining their story from the inside, Chekhov demythologized the brutes and aggressors; he cut them down to human size. They no longer elicited hatred but rather pity.

She used the closeness of death to teach her what really matters and to help her steer clear of the petty squabbles and concerns that plagued others. She used it to anchor herself in the present, to make her appreciate every moment and every encounter.

The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Los chinos tienen un proverbio: "Cuando el Yang está en su fase ascendente, el Yin nace", lo que traducido a nuestro lenguaje quiere decir que cuando un hombre ha dedicado lo mejor de su vida a los asuntos ordinarios de la sobrevivencia, el Yin o lado emocional de su naturaleza sale a la superficie y reclama sus derechos. Cuando ocurre este periodo, todo lo que antes parecía importante pierde su significación.

Those misfortunates among us who have been brought down by circumstances beyond their control deserve all the help and sympathy we can give them. But there are others who are not born to misfortune or unhappiness, but who draw it upon themselves by their destructive actions and unsettling effect on others. It would be a great thing if we could raise them up, change their patterns, but more often than not it is their patterns that end up getting inside and changing us.

Daily Law: Think more like a writer in approaching the people you deal with, even the worst sorts.

Return to the harder or softer sides of your character that you have lost or repressed.

Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for, by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgement, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity... you cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others.

The Dimensional Mind has two essential requirements: one, a high level of knowledge about a field or subject; and two, the openness and flexibility to use this knowledge in new and original ways.

as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved. Fear you can control; love, never.

In your thinking, learn to blend the analytical with the intuitive in order to become more creative.

As long as there are humans, the irrational will find its voices and means of spreading. Rationality is something to be acquired by individuals, not by mass movements or technological progress. Feeling superior and beyond it is a sure sign that the irrational is at work.

Those who make assumptions from far away, based on universal theories, do not see the whole picture. It takes great time and effort to see the differences, to participate in a culture. And because it is much harder to percieve these differences, culture has not been given its due as one of the primary shaping forces for language and for how we experience the world.

Tear out my eyes, oh King, and fix them on the gate of Wu, so that I may see the triumphant entry of Yueh.

Daily Law: Return to the harder or softer sides of your character that you have lost or repressed. The Laws of Human Nature, 12: Reconnect to the Masculine or Feminine within You—The Law of Gender Rigidity

Know How Little You Know

we continually consult our smartphones as a kind of substitute pair of eyes upon us.

Honesty is actually a blunt instrument, which bloodies more than it cuts.

In any competitive environment in which there are winners or losers, the person who has the wider, more global perspective will inevitably prevail. The reason is simple: such a person will be able to think beyond the moment and control the overall dynamic through careful strategizing.

People are of infinite complexity and you can spend a lifetime watching them without ever fully understanding them