Quotes About Influence

Desperate to win the French over to the American cause and understanding their nature quite well, he had transformed himself into what they had wanted to see in him—the American version of the French spirit and way of life. He was appealing to their notorious narcissism.

The Laws of Human Nature is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes. If you let it guide you, it will radically alter how you perceive people and your entire approach to dealing with them. It will also radically change how you see yourself.

Napoleón: cubrir tu mano de hierro con un guante de terciopelo.

Hide your intentions not by closing up (with the risk of appearing secretive, and making people suspicious) but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals—just not your real ones.

This is the model: Make others dependent on you. To get rid of you might spell disaster, even death, and your master dares not tempt fate by finding out. There are many ways to obtain such a position. Foremost among them is to possess a talent and creative skill that simply cannot be replaced.

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 run

Leaders who try to dissolve that distance through a false chumminess gradually lose the ability to inspire loyalty, fear, or love. Instead they elicit contempt.

One last warning: Do not imagine that your master's dependence on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you. But, as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved. Fear you can control; love, never.

Con demasiada frecuencia creemos que el poder cambia a la gente, cuando en realidad la muestra tal como es.

Since power is a human creation, it is inevitably increased by contact with other people.

Understand: once people know what pleases you and what angers you, they turn into trained poodles, working to charm you with apparent good behavior.

The ability to measure people and to know who you're dealing with is the most important skill of all in gathering and conserving power. Without it you are blind: Not only will you offend the wrong people, you will choose the wrong types to work on, and will think you are flattering people when you are actually insulting them.

Inflaming Individuals There are people in the world who by their nature tend to trigger powerful emotions in almost everyone they encounter.

They become infected with the leader's aggression and get to act it out on others, perhaps those below them. But such an environment is tiring, and those serving the aggressor are constantly taking hits to their self-esteem. With most aggressors, the turnover is high and the morale low. As the ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles once wrote, "Whoever makes his way into a tyrant's court becomes his slave, although he went there a free man.

Otros son capaces de actuar con seguridad y fanfarronería, y a menudo se convierten en líderes. Las personas con habilidades actorales consumadas pueden sortear mejor los complejos entornos sociales y salir adelante.

Hace falta más talento para amar que para mandar ejércitos. NINON DE L'ENCLOS

Being a leader of even the smallest group gives you something to live up to: people are watching you, judging you, depending on you. To lose your composure would make it hard for you to live with yourself.

Power depends on the ability to fill a void ...

We forget the role that luck may have played in the success, or the contributions of others.

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:

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.

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

The reason is simple—humans are extremely susceptible to the moods, emotions, and even the ways of thinking of those with whom they spend their time.