This document provides advice on how to gain and maintain power over others through manipulation and deception. It recommends choosing victims carefully, maintaining independence, playing people against each other, and appearing smarter than you are to hide your true motives. Other tactics include surrendering to avoid giving opponents satisfaction, finding reliable sources of influence, and indirectly asserting power through large gestures to seem hugely powerful. The document stresses the importance of planning ahead for all scenarios and acting with ease and confidence to conceal tricks and intentions.

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3. Never assume everyone will
react the same way.
Choose your victims carefully.
Never offend the wrong
person.

5. Fools rush to pick a side.
Do not commit to a cause but yourself
Maintain independence
Make people chase you and play people
against one another

7. Don’t be stupid, but make your mark
appear smarter than you
Making them appear smarter hides
your motives

9. When you’re weaker, never fight just
for honor but surrender
Do not give them the satisfaction to
win, surrender
Turn the other cheek to infuriate
them

11. Intensity defeats extensity every time
Find a fat cow that’ll give you milk for a long
time

13. Master the art of indirection
Assert power gracefully

15. Create an identity that commands attention and
never bores
Be the master of your own image
Use large gestures and actions-your character will
seem huge and you’ll gain power

17. Never appear soiled by mistake
Use others as scapegoats to disguise your
involvement

19. People want to believe in
something
Become the focal point of this and
offer them a cause, a new faith
Keep your words vague but full of
promise

21. If you’re unsure then don’t do it
Timidity is dangerous
Any mistakes your commit through
audacity are easily corrected with
more audacity
Everyone admires boldness, no one
honors the timid

23. The ending is everything
Take into account every scenario
If you plan, you won’t be
overwhelmed
Guide fortune by thinking far
ahead

25. Your actions must seem natural
and executed with ease
Your actions must seem natural
and executed with ease
Teach no one your tricks or they
will be used against you

27. Create the illusion of choice
Stack the deck:
Make sure the options you provide
lead to outcomes favourable to you
regardless of the choices others
make

29. Never appeal to truth and reality unless
you are prepared for the anger that
comes for disenchantment
People tend to avoid truth because it is
very often unattractive and harsh

31. Everyone has a key weakness
When you discover your enemy’s
“thumbscrew,” you can exploit it
to your advantage

33. Carry yourself with an air of
regality
By acting regally and confident of
your powers, you make yourself
seem destined to wear a crown

35. Act as if you know that things will
come to you eventually
Learn to stand back when the time
is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely
when it has reached fruition

37. If there is something you want
but cannot have, show contempt
for it. The less interest you reveal,
the more superior you seem

39. Stage spectacles for those around you,
then, full of arresting visuals and radiant
symbols that heighten your presence
Awestruck by surface appearances, your
true intentions and aspirations will be
concealed while everyone is focused on the
distraction that your spectacle strategy
creates

41. It is far safer to blend in and
nurture the common touch
Be guarded with your uniqueness
and flair for originality

43. Put your enemies off-balance:
Find the chink in their vanity
through which you can rattle
them and you hold the strings

45. By paying your own way you stay
clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit
Be liberal with your spending—
generosity is an indicator and a lure
for power

47. Establish your own name and
identity by changing course
Slay the overbearing father,
disparage his legacy, and gain power
by shining in your own way

49. Problems often have a root in
one particular individual
Neutralize their influence by
isolating or banishing them

51. Coercion must at some point give way to
seduction
Person you have seduced becomes your
loyal pawn
Way to seduce others is to operate on their
individual psychologies and weaknesses
Soften up the resistant by working on their
emotions, playing on what they hold dear
and what they fear

53. By holding up a mirror to their
psyches, you seduce them with the
illusion that you share their values
By holding up a mirror to their
actions, you teach them a lesson

55. If you try to do too much too soon,
the tide of opinion will turn to a
state of revolt and rejection
If change is essential, make people
feel like it’s a benign improvement
on what’s come before

57. Anybody who projects an air of
flawlessness is bound to incur
feelings of envy
It is wise to every now and then
reveal flaws and mild shortcomings

59. In the heat of victory, arrogance
and overconfidence can push you
past the goal you had aimed for
And by going too far, you make
more enemies than you defeat

61. By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you
open yourself to attack
Instead of taking a form for your enemy to
grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move
The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid
and formless as water; never bet on stability or
lasting order. Everything changes