Summary of "48 Laws of Power"

I told a friend: "Don't read this book; at most, read the summary and then try to forget what you just read. "

Here is the summary.

I. Managing Relationships with Superiors

Law 1: Never Outshine the Master Make those above you feel comfortably superior. Don't go too far in displaying your talents or you might inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are.

Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier Master the art of indirection. Flatter superiors and assert power over others in an oblique, graceful manner. Apply the laws of courtiership to rise in any hierarchical structure.

Law 41: Avoid Stepping into a Great Man's Shoes What happens first appears better and more original than what follows. If succeeding a great figure, you must accomplish twice as much to outshine them. Establish your own identity by changing course.

II. Managing Your Reputation and Image

Law 5: Guard Your Reputation Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win. Make your reputation unassailable and be alert to potential attacks.

Law 6: Court Attention at All Costs Everything is judged by its appearance. Stand out, be conspicuous, and make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, and more mysterious than the bland masses.

Law 25: Recreate Yourself Don't accept the roles society foists on you. Forge a new identity that commands attention. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you.

Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion Act like a king to be treated like one. How you carry yourself determines how you are treated. By acting regally and confident, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create an aura of power. Stage spectacles full of arresting visuals that heighten your presence and distract from your actual intentions.

Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect Appearing better than others is dangerous. Envy creates silent enemies. Occasionally display defects and admit to harmless vices to appear more human and approachable.

III. Strategic Thinking

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions Keep people off balance by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you're up to, they cannot prepare a defense.

Law 14: Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy Gather critical information about rivals through indirect questions. Use polite social encounters as opportunities for artful spying.

Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses Isolation is dangerous. A fortress cuts you off from valuable information and makes you an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, and be shielded by the crowd.

Law 29: Plan All the Way to the End Consider all possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work. By planning to the end, you won't be overwhelmed by circumstances.

Law 31: Control the Options The best deceptions give the other person a choice that comes out in your favor regardless of which option they choose. Force them to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Law 48: Assume Formlessness By taking a visible shape or form, you open yourself to attack. Stay adaptable and on the move. Accept that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. Be as fluid as water.

IV. Control and Power Dynamics

Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You To maintain independence, make yourself needed and wanted. The more others rely on you, the more freedom you have. Never teach them enough that they can do without you.

Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally If one ember is left alight, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation. Crush enemies completely, not just in body but in spirit.

Law 17: Keep Others in Suspense Humans need familiarity in others' actions. Become deliberately unpredictable to keep them off balance. Behavior without apparent consistency will wear others out as they try to explain your moves.

Law 27: Play on People's Need to Believe People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point by offering a cause or new faith. Keep words vague but promising, emphasizing enthusiasm over rationality.

Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. Conceal all the toil, practice, and tricks that go into them. Avoid revealing how hard you work; it only raises questions.

Law 42: Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep Will Scatter Trouble often traces to a single strong individual. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them.

Law 43: Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others Coercion creates reactions that eventually work against you. Seduce others into wanting to move in your direction by operating on their individual psychologies and weaknesses.

V. Communication and Social Tactics

Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary The more you say, the more common you appear and the less in control. Powerful people impress by saying less. Make your words vague and open-ended.

Law 8: Make Other People Come to You When you force others to act, you are in control. It's better to make opponents come to you, abandoning their own plans. Lure them with gains, then attack.

Law 9: Win Through Actions, Never Through Argument Any triumph through argument is pyrrhic; the resentment it creates lasts longer than any change of opinion. Demonstrate, don't explicate.

Law 13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to Self-Interest Don't remind allies of past assistance; they'll find ways to ignore you. Instead, emphasize what benefits them in your request, and they'll respond enthusiastically.

Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect When you mirror enemies by doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. By holding up a mirror to their psyches or actions, you seduce or teach them a lesson.

Law 45: Preach Change but Never Reform Too Much Everyone understands the need for change in abstract, but people are creatures of habit. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

VI. Manipulation and Deception

Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work but Take the Credit Use others' wisdom, knowledge, and legwork to further your cause. This saves time and energy while giving you an aura of efficiency. Helpers will be forgotten; you will be remembered.

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty to Disarm One sincere, honest move will cover dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures bring down guards of even the most suspicious. Once selective honesty creates an opening, you can manipulate at will.

Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker No one likes feeling stupider than others. Make your victims feel smart—smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they'll never suspect ulterior motives.

Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean Appear as a paragon of civility and efficiency whose hands are never soiled by mistakes or nasty deeds. Use others as unwitting pawns to disguise your involvement.

Law 32: Play to People's Fantasies Truth is often avoided because it's ugly and unpleasant. Life is harsh, so those who can manufacture romance or fantasy are like oases in the desert. There's great power in tapping into mass fantasies.

Law 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew Everyone has a weakness—a gap in their defenses. Once found, this "thumbscrew" can be turned to your advantage. It might be an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion, or a secret pleasure.

VII. Strategic Defense

Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends Be wary of friends; they betray more quickly due to envy. Former enemies make more loyal allies because they have more to prove. If you have no enemies, find ways to make them.

Law 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky Emotional states are as infectious as diseases. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves—and will draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Law 19: Know Who You're Dealing With Never offend the wrong person. Some people will spend their lives seeking revenge if deceived. Choose victims and opponents carefully.

Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone It is foolish to rush to take sides. By maintaining independence, you become the master of others, playing people against one another and making them pursue you.

Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic When weaker, never fight for honor's sake—surrender instead. This gives you time to recover and irritate your conqueror. Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have Acknowledging problems gives them existence. The more attention paid to enemies, the stronger they become. Sometimes it's best to leave things alone. Show contempt for what you cannot have.

Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch What is offered for free usually involves tricks or hidden obligations. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way, you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit.

VIII. Efficiency and Mastery

Law 16: Use Absence to Increase Respect Too much circulation makes the price go down. The more you are seen and heard, the more common you appear. Temporary withdrawal increases admiration. Create value through scarcity.

Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces Conserve energy by keeping forces concentrated at their strongest point. Intensity defeats extensity. Find the one key patron—the fat cow who will give milk for a long time.

Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness If unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Timidity is dangerous; boldness is better. Any mistakes made through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.

Law 35: Master the Art of Timing Never seem hurried; it betrays lack of control. Appear patient, as if everything will come eventually. Become a detective of the right moment, and learn when to stand back and when to strike.

Law 38: Think as You Like but Behave Like Others Going against the times and flaunting unconventional ideas makes people think you want attention or look down on them. It's safer to blend in while sharing originality only with tolerant friends.

Law 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish Anger is counterproductive strategically. Stay calm and objective, but if you can make enemies angry while remaining calm, you gain advantage. Find the chink in their vanity to rattle them.

Law 47: Do Not Go Past the Mark You Aimed For The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance can push you past your goal, making more enemies than you defeat. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.