Quotes from Robert Greene

What withdraws, what becomes scarce, suddenly seems to deserve our respect and honor.

The whole law of human existence consists in nothing other than a man's always being able to bow before the immeasurably great. If people are deprived of the immeasurably great, they will not live and will die in despair. The immeasurable and infinite are as necessary for man as the small planet he inhabits. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others, that is too high a price to pay.

Hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time.

The origin of the word "seduction" is the Latin for "to lead astray.")

Antes que nada, quisiera dar las gracias a Anna Biller por sus incontables contribuciones a este libro:

you will feel differently about yourself. Your concept of time will expand and you will realize that if the past lives on in you, what you are doing today, the world you live in, will live on and affect the future, connecting you to the larger human spirit that moves through us all. You in this moment are a part of that unbroken chain. And this can be an intoxicating experience, a strange intimation of immortality.

Know What You're Drawn to and Immerse Yourself in It

Any success that we have in life inevitably depends on some good luck, timing, the contributions of others

At a certain point, you can almost become a stranger to yourself.

The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated: In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

If you cannot help being charming and superior, you must learn to avoid such monsters of vanity. Either that, or find a way to mute your good qualities when in the company of a Cesare Borgia.

So I went down to their office and I said, "Well, I'll write a column for you." So the first year I didn't get paid anything, but I wrote a little column every month

Do not show all your cards. An air of mystery heightens your presence; it also creates anticipation.

Test for Envy

Existence alone had never been enough for him; he had always wanted more. Perhaps it was only from the force of his desires that he had regarded himself as a man to whom more was permitted than to others. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

The past often has elements worth appropriating, qualities that would be foolish to reject out of a need to distinguish yourself.... Making a display of doing things differently from your predecessor can make you seem childish and in fact out of control, unless your actions have a logic of their own.

According to Klein, these common strategies are brittle and will break down under stress—a downturn in their career, bouts of depression, wounds to their ego. The envy they experienced in their earliest years remains continually latent and ready to be directed at others. They are literally looking for people to envy so they can reexperience the primal emotion.

Daily Law: What's something you've always felt a pull toward? Dive deep into it today. Mastery, I: Discover Your Calling—The Life's Task

En todas las esferas de la vida, nunca des la impresión de que buscas algo; esto producirá una resistencia que nunca someterás.

The root of the Latin word for envy, invidia, means "to look through, to probe with the eyes like a dagger.

Por esto, cuando he conseguido una victoria, no vuelvo a emplear la misma táctica otra vez, sino que, respondiendo a las circunstancias, varío mis métodos hasta el infinito. —Sun-tzu (siglo IV a.C.).

People rarely believe that their problems arise from their own misdeeds and stupidity. Someone or something out there is to blame-the other, the world, the gods- and so salvation comes from the outside as well.

The eyes are indeed a telling indicator, but the envious microexpression affects the entire face.