Top 500 Robert Greene Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “The most important of these skills, and power’s crucial foundation, is the ability to master your emotions. 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

202. “Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it clouds your vision the most.”

— Robert Greene

203. “If we keep practicing, we gain fluency; basic skills are mastered, allowing us to take on newer and more exciting challenges.”

— Robert Greene

204. “Image: An Oak Tree. The oak that resists the wind loses its branches one by one, and with nothing left to protect it, the trunk fi nally snaps. The oak that bends lives long er, its trunk grow ing wider, its roots deeper and more tenacious.”

— Robert Greene

205. “Learn to use the knowledge of the past and you will look like a genius, even when you are really just a clever borrower.”

— Robert Greene

206. “On the internet, it is easy to find studies that support both sides of an argument. In general, you should never accept the validity of people’s ideas because they have supplied “evidence.” Instead, examine the evidence yourself in the cold light of day, with as much skepticism as you can muster. Your first impulse should always be to find the evidence that disconfirms your most cherished beliefs and those of others. That is true science.”

— Robert Greene

207. “The only real impediment to this is yourself and your emotions – boredom, panic, frustration, insecurity. You cannot suppress such emotions – they are normal to the process and are experienced by everyone, including Masters. What you can do is have faith in the process.”

— Robert Greene

208. “So much of power is not what you do but what you do not do – the rash and foolish actions that you refrain from before they get you into trouble. Plan in detail before you act – do not let vague plans lead you into trouble.”

— Robert Greene

209. “You can’t disengage yourself from that game if you are completely unaware of what people out there might be doing, you’re just going to be tripped up, you’re going to find yourself continually at a disadvantage.”

— Robert Greene

210. “Sadness of any sort is also seductive, particularly if it seems deep-rooted, even spiritual, rather than needy or pathetic – it makes people come to you.”

— Robert Greene

211. “As I live I must die daily My old nature I must kill.”

— Robert Greene

212. “For as one star another far exceeds, So souls in heaven are placed by their deeds.”

— Robert Greene

213. “No greater mischief could be wrought Than love united to a jealous thought.”

— Robert Greene

214. “While a friend expects more and more favors, and seethes with jealousy, these former enemies expected nothing and got everything. A man suddenly spared the guillotine is a grateful man indeed, and will go to the ends of the earth for the man who has pardoned him.”

— Robert Greene

215. “Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.”

— Robert Greene

216. “At certain points in history it may be fashionable to be different and rebellious, but if a lot of people are playing that role, there is nothing different or rebellious about it.”

— Robert Greene

217. “Immerse yourself in the world or the industry that you wish to master.”

— Robert Greene

218. “In knowing yourself, you accept your limits. You are simply one person among many in the world, and not naturally superior to anyone.”

— Robert Greene

219. “What people say about themselves does not matter; people will say anything. Look at what they have done; deeds do not lie. You must also apply this logic to yourself. In looking back at a defeat, you must identify the things you could have done differently.”

— Robert Greene

220. “Too much attention early on will actually just suggest insecurity, and raise doubts as to your motives. Worst of all, it gives your targets no room for imagination. Take a step back; let the thoughts you are provoking come to them as if they were their own. This is doubly important if you are dealing with someone who has a deep effect on you.”

— Robert Greene

221. “So much of power is not what you do but what you do not do – the rash and foolish actions that you refrain from before they get you into trouble.”

— Robert Greene

222. “People with a lot of time on their hands are extremely susceptible to seduction. They have mental space for you to fill.”

— Robert Greene

223. “I got very good on the telephone tricks too. Like calling up a company and find out that the plant was going to building a new addition and getting hold of the engineering office and getting the secretary to give me the direct extension.”

— Robert Greene

224. “Hip-hop, you can’t really do that when you’re in your 50s.”

— Robert Greene

225. “Seducers are never self-absorbed. Their gaze is directed outward, not inward. When they meet someone their first move is to get inside that person’s skin, to see the world through their eyes.”

— Robert Greene

226. “Many men are intimidated by beauty and prefer to worship it from afar; others are drawn in, but not for the purpose of conversation. The Beauty suffers from isolation.”

— Robert Greene

227. “Remember: You have only so much energy and so much time. Every moment wasted on the affairs of others subtracts from your strength. You may be afraid that people will condemn you as heartless, but in the end, maintaining your independence and self-reliance will gain you more respect and place you in a position of power from which you can choose to help others on your own initiative.”

— Robert Greene

228. “Try to persuade a person by appealing to their consciousness, by saying outright what you want, by showing all your cards, and what hope do you have? You are just one more irritation to be tuned out.”

— Robert Greene

229. “Love never dies of starvation,” she wrote, “but often of indigestion.”

— Robert Greene

230. “Time is the greatest weapon you have. Patiently keep in mind a long-term goal and neither person nor army can resist you. And charm is the best way of playing for time, of widening your options in any situation. Through charm you can seduce your enemy into backing off, giving you the psychological space to plot an effective counterstrategy.”

— Robert Greene

231. “You want to retain the elasticity of spirit you had as a child, interested in everything, while retaining the hard-nosed need to verify and scrutinize for yourself all ideas and beliefs.”

— Robert Greene

232. “People’s need for validation and recognition, their need to feel important, is the best kind of weakness to exploit. First, it is almost universal; second, exploiting it is so very easy. All you have to do is find ways to make people feel better about their taste, their social standing, their intelligence.”

— Robert Greene

233. “Learn to question yourself: Why this anger or resentment? Where does this incessant need for attention come from? Under such scrutiny, your emotions will lose their hold on you. You will begin to think for yourself instead of reacting to what others give you.”

— Robert Greene

234. “The only way to break out of a negative dynamic is to confront it. Repressing your anger, avoiding the person threatening you, always looking to conciliate – these common strategies spell ruin. Avoidance of conflict becomes a habit, and you lose the taste for battle. Feeling guilty is pointless; it is not your fault you have enemies.”

— Robert Greene

235. “Space we can recover, time never. Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821.”

— Robert Greene

236. “When you have success, be extra wary. When you are angry, take no action. When you are fearful, know you are going to exaggerate the dangers you face.”

— Robert Greene

237. “You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move. What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile engagement. Your pride is not involved. The best lesson you can teach an irritating gnat is to consign it to oblivion by ignoring it.”

— Robert Greene

238. “Instead of spending your time dreaming of your plan’s happy ending, you must work on calculating every possible permutation and pitfall that might emerge in it.”

— Robert Greene

239. “Everything that is rare is expensive: the more you are seen, the more you are heard, and the more ordinary you seem. If you are part of a group, step away for a while and you will be talked about more, and even admired more. Practice absence: scarcity will increase your value.”

— Robert Greene

240. “Confidence is important, but if it is not based on a realistic appraisal of who you are, it is mere grandiosity and smugness.”

— Robert Greene

241. “Hip-hop has a feeling element, it’s not just about knowing music. It’s not like classical music or jazz where you can go on raw energy.”

— Robert Greene

242. “Because you think you have options, you never involve yourself deeply enough in one thing to do it thoroughly, and you never quite get what you want. Sometimes you need to run your ships aground, burn them, and leave yourself just one option: succeed or go down. Make the burning of your ships as real as possible – get rid of your safety net. Sometimes you have to become a little desperate to get anywhere.”

— Robert Greene

243. “Acted like a king to be treated like one.”

— Robert Greene

244. “As a warrior in life, you must turn this dynamic around: make the thought of death something not to escape but to embrace. Your days are numbered. Will you pass them half awake and halfhearted or will you live with a sense of urgency?”

— Robert Greene

245. “By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.”

— Robert Greene

246. “Years later, a Japanese visitor tried to apologize to Mao for his country’s invasion of China. Mao interrupted, “Should I not thank you instead?” Without a worthy opponent, he explained, a man or group cannot grow stronger. Mao’s.”

— Robert Greene

247. “Boldness... is outer directed... and makes others feel more at ease because it’s less self-conscious.”

— Robert Greene

248. “Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do NOT do, what you do not ALLOW yourself to get dragged into.”

— Robert Greene

249. “If you are not in danger,” says Sun-tzu, “do not fight.”

— Robert Greene

250. “Religion is the great balm of existence because it takes us outside ourselves, connects us to something larger.”

— Robert Greene