Top 500 Robert Greene Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Being attacked is a sign that you are important enough to be a target. You should relish the attention and the chance to prove yourself.”

— Robert Greene

102. “You must value learning above everything else.”

— Robert Greene

103. “Eventually, the time that was not spent on learning skills will catch up with you, and the fall will be painful.”

— Robert Greene

104. “Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.”

— Robert Greene

105. “What offers immediate pleasure comes to seem like a distraction, an empty entertainment to help pass the time. Real pleasure comes from overcoming challenges, feeling confidence in your abilities, gaining fluency in skills, and experiencing the power this brings.”

— Robert Greene

106. “If you have millions and millions of dollars, you’re living in a totally different world. You don’t feel it anymore and you’ve got to feel it.”

— Robert Greene

107. “The boredom will go away once you enter the cycle. The panic disappears after repeated exposure. The frustration is a sign of progress – a signal that your mind is processing complexity and requires more practice. The insecurities will transform into their opposites when you gain mastery.”

— Robert Greene

108. “Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention.”

— Robert Greene

109. “Ah! what is love! It is a pretty thing, As sweet unto a shepherd as a king, And sweeter too; For kings have cares that wait upon a crown, And cares can make the sweetest love to frown.”

— Robert Greene

110. “But the 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 wild and cause you grief. Power cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words.”

— Robert Greene

111. “Stop shallow water from running, it will rage; tread on a worm and it will turn.”

— Robert Greene

112. “When it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.”

— Robert Greene

113. “Only your hearts be frolic, for the time Craves that we taste of naught but jouissance.”

— Robert Greene

114. “If deception is the most potent weapon in your arsenal, then patience in all things is your crucial shield.”

— Robert Greene

115. “Never discriminate as to whom you study and whom you trust. Never trust anyone completely and study everyone, including friends and loved ones.”

— Robert Greene

116. “Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes better, then, to use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them into friends or allies.”

— Robert Greene

117. “A sense of urgency comes from a powerful connection to the present.”

— Robert Greene

118. “I often daydream about the future, thinking of the world in 100, 200 years, imagining what it looks like, feels like. I hope that my books are like ghosts that will inhabit this future.”

— Robert Greene

119. “Set a beggar on horse backe, they saie, and hee will neuer alight.”

— Robert Greene

120. “Your ability to work with people directly affects your ability to get work done in the world.”

— Robert Greene

121. “Life has more meaning in the face of Death.”

— Robert Greene

122. “Never be distracted by people’s glamorous portraits of themselves and their lives; search and dig for what really imprisons them.”

— Robert Greene

123. “You must be the mirror, training your mind to try to see yourself as others see you.”

— Robert Greene

124. “We are a social animal, power only exists in a social sense, we have to work in groups.”

— Robert Greene

125. “The best way to neutralize our natural impatience is to cultivate a kind of pleasure in pain – like an athlete, you come to enjoy rigorous practice, pushing past your limits, and resisting the easy way out.”

— Robert Greene

126. “In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it.”

— Robert Greene

127. “Love is a lock that linketh noble minds, Faith is the key that shuts the spring of love.”

— Robert Greene

128. “The mind must not wander from goal to goal, or be distracted by success from its sense of purpose and proportion.”

— Robert Greene

129. “People want to feel united, they want to have that religious sense they want to feel like at a rave 10,000 people at the rave are feeling the same emotions, a very primal need that’s not being fulfilled in the world today.”

— Robert Greene

130. “Ah Franion, treason is loved of many, but the Traitor hated of all: unjust offences may for a time escape without danger, but never without revenge.”

— Robert Greene

131. “Your most creative years are generally in your late twenties and on into your forties. You can learn what you need through books, your own practice, and occasional advice from others, but the process is hit-and-miss.”

— Robert Greene

132. “Animals behave in set patterns, which is why we are able to hunt and kill them. Only man has the capacity to consciously alter his behavior, to improvise and overcome the weight of routine and habit.”

— Robert Greene

133. “There is a tremendous problem in modern culture. We have become used to everything coming to us with tremendous speed and ease. It is a culture where discipline and patience is almost impossible to develop.”

— Robert Greene

134. “He who poses as a fool is not a fool.”

— Robert Greene

135. “Concentrate on a single goal, a single task, and beat it into submission.”

— Robert Greene

136. “In the end, the money and success that truly last come not to those who focus on such things as goals, but rather to those who focus on mastery and fulfilling their Life’s Task.”

— Robert Greene

137. “Too much respect for other people’s wisdom will make you depreciate your own.”

— Robert Greene

138. “It is not much good being wise among fools and sane among lunatics.”

— Robert Greene

139. “The more Coriolanus said, the less powerful he appeared – a person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect.”

— Robert Greene

140. “Napoleon advised: Place your iron hand inside a velvet glove.”

— Robert Greene

141. “An emotional response to a situation is the single greatest barrier to power, a mistake that will cost you a lot more than any temporary satisfaction you might gain by expressing your feelings.”

— Robert Greene

142. “The Laws of Human Nature, 1: Master Your Emotional Self – The Law of Irrationality.”

— Robert Greene

143. “50 is a great person. I was a little intimidated when I met him for the first time in 2006. I didn’t know what to expect. It ended up we got along really well. That’s why we decided to do a book together, The 50th Law of Power.”

— Robert Greene

144. “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. – ALBERT EINSTEIN.”

— Robert Greene

145. “The feeling that we have endless time to complete our work has an insidious and debilitating effect on our minds. Our attention and thoughts become diffused. Our lack of intensity makes it hard for the brain to jolt into a higher gear. The connections do not occur. For this purpose you must always try to work with deadlines, whether real or manufactured.”

— Robert Greene

146. “On woman Nature did bestow two eyes, Like Hemian’s bright lamps, in matchless beauty shining, Whose beams do soonest captivate the wise And wary heads, made rare by art’s refining.”

— Robert Greene

147. “I’ve always loved black culture; I don’t know any other way to put it. Since I was a kid I loved music and early jazz, Sly and the Family Stone.”

— Robert Greene

148. “The key then to attaining this higher level of intelligence is to make our years of study qualitatively rich. We don’t simply absorb information – we internalize it and make it our own by finding some way to put this knowledge to practical use.”

— Robert Greene

149. “Great strategists do not act according to preconceived ideas; they respond to the moment, like children. Their minds are always moving, and they are always excited and curious. They quickly forget the past – the present is much too interesting.”

— Robert Greene

150. “When the evening began, Fouquet was at the top of the world. By the time it had ended, he was at the bottom. Voltaire, 1694-1778.”

— Robert Greene