Book Summary: 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

 Alright, here are the 48 Laws of Power as presented in Robert Greene's book:

• Law 1: Never Outshine the Master: Always make those above you feel comfortably superior.
• Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies: Be wary of friends—they will betray you more quickly.  
• Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions: Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions.  
• Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary: When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear.  
• Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation—Guard It With Your Life: Reputation is the cornerstone of power.
• Law 6: Court Attention at All Costs: Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing.
• Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You, But Always Take the Credit: Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause.  
• Law 8: Make Other People Come to You—Use Bait if Necessary: When you force the other person to act, you are in control.
• Law 9: Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument: Any momentary triumph you think you have gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory.  
• Law 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky: You can die from someone else's misery—emotional states are as infectious as diseases.  
• Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You: To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted.
• Law 12: Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victim: One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones.  
• Law 13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to People's Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy or Gratitude: If you need to turn to somebody for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds.
• Law 14: Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy: Knowing about your rival is critical.
• Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally: All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely.  
• Law 16: Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor: Too much circulation makes the price go down.
• Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability: Humans are creatures of habit.
• Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself—Isolation Is Dangerous: The world is a dangerous place, and enemies lurk everywhere.
• Law 19: Know Who You're Dealing With—Do Not Offend the Wrong Person: There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way.  
• Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone: It is the fool who always rushes to take sides.
• Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker—Seem Dumber Than Your Mark: No one likes feeling stupider than the next person.  
• Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power: When you are weaker, never fight for honor's sake; choose surrender instead.  
• Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces: Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them to a strong point.
• Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier: The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity.  
• Law 25: Re-Create Yourself: Do not accept the roles that society foists on you.
• Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean: You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency.
• Law 27: Play on People's Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following: People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something.  
• Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness: If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it.
• Law 29: Plan All the Way to the End: The ending is everything.
• Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless: Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease.
• Law 31: Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards You Deal: The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice.  
• Law 32: Play to People's Fantasies: The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant.
• Law 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew: Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall.
• Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion: Act Like a King to Be Treated Like One: The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated.  
• Law 35: Master the Art of Timing: Never seem to be in a hurry—hurrying betrays lack of control over yourself, and over time.
• Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have: Ignoring Them Is the Best Revenge: By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility.  
• Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles: Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power.
• Law 38: Think as You Like but Behave Like Others: If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention.  
• Law 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish: Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive.
• Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch: What is offered for free is usually dangerous—it usually has either a trap or a hidden obligation.
• Law 41: Avoid Stepping into a Great Man's Shoes: What happened once can easily happen again.
• Law 42: Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep Will Scatter: Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual—the bold subordinate, the arrogant troublemaker, the poisoned well.
• Law 43: Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others: Coercion will only backfire on you.
• Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect: The mirror effect mocks and humiliates, making the opponent overreact.
• Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform Too Much at Once: Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level, people are creatures of habit.  
• Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect: Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses.  
• Law 47: Do Not Go Past the Mark You Aimed For; In Victory, Know When to Stop: The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril.  
• Law 48: Assume Formlessness: By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack.

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By Jerry Ramonyai