Top 500 Robert Greene Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Acted like a king to be treated like one.”

— Robert Greene

202. “Hesitation creates gaps. Boldness obliterates them.”

— Robert Greene

203. “If you lose contact with this inner calling, you can have some success in life, but eventually your lack of true desire catches up with you. Your work becomes mechanical. You come to live for leisure and immediate pleasures. In this way you become increasingly passive, and never move past the first phase. You may grow frustrated and depressed, never realizing that the source of it is your alienation from your own creative potential.”

— Robert Greene

204. “What you know must translate into action, and action must translate into knowledge. In this way strategy becomes a lifelong challenge and the source of constant pleasure in surmounting difficulties and solving problems.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

208. “Never pick a fight with someone you’re not sure you can defeat.”

— Robert Greene

209. “If you feel lost and confused, if you lose your sense of direction, if you cannot tell the difference between friend and foe, you have only yourself to blame.”

— Robert Greene

210. “Always try to lower the other side’s sense of urgency. Make your enemies think they have all the time in the world; when you suddenly appear at their border, they are in a slumbering state, and you will easily overrun them. While you are sharpening your fighting spirit, always do what you can to blunt theirs. PART.”

— Robert Greene

211. “Spectacle and entertainment, clearly, are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely. The public grows tired and suspicious, and eventually catches on to the trick.”

— Robert Greene

212. “Learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.”

— Robert Greene

213. “So often we think that power has changed people, when in fact it simply reveals more of who they are.”

— Robert Greene

214. “You will not seduce anyone by simply depending on your engaging personality, or by occasionally doing something noble or alluring. Seduction is a process that occurs over time – the longer you take and the slower you go, the deeper you will penetrate into the mind of your victim. It is an art that requires patience, focus, and strategic thinking. You need to always be one step ahead of your victim, throwing dust in their eyes, casting a spell, keeping them off balance.”

— Robert Greene

215. “The environment we operate in may be different, but the brain is essentially the same, and its power to learn, adapt, and master time is universal.”

— Robert Greene

216. “Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.”

— Robert Greene

217. “Power is a game. This cannot be repeated too often!”

— Robert Greene

218. “Follow David’s example: say or do something that can be read in more than one way, that may be superficially polite but that could also indicate a slight coolness on your part or be seen as a subtle insult. A friend may wonder but will let it pass. The secret enemy, though, will react with anger.”

— Robert Greene

219. “You destroy an enemy when you make a friend of him.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

221. “We are all self-absorbed, locked in our own worlds. It is a therapeutic and liberating experience to be drawn outside ourselves and into the world of another.”

— Robert Greene

222. “To follow precisely the lead of others or advice from a book is self-defeating.”

— Robert Greene

223. “Though men determine, the gods doo dispose: and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.”

— Robert Greene

224. “Remember: The paranoid and wary are often the easiest to deceive. Win their trust in one area and you have a smoke screen that blinds their view in another, letting you creep up and level them with a devastating blow.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

226. “Being attacked is a sign that you are important enough to be a target.”

— Robert Greene

227. “Express what others are afraid to express and they will see great power in you.”

— Robert Greene

228. “You are your own worst enemy. You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Since nothing seems urgent to you, you are only half involved in what you do. The only way to change is through action and outside pressure.”

— Robert Greene

229. “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

230. “Work at what connects to you emotionally and ideas will come to you.”

— Robert Greene

231. “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

232. “Results are important, but the way they are achieved, the process, is equally important.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

234. “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

235. “You may have brilliant ideas, the kind that could revolutionize the world, but unless you can express them effectively, they will have no force, no power to enter people’s minds in a deep and lasting way.”

— Robert Greene

236. “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

237. “A seducer does not turn the power off and on – every social and personal interaction is seen as a potential seduction. There is never a moment to waste.”

— Robert Greene

238. “Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.”

— Robert Greene

239. “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

240. “The truth is that everything starts from the top. What determines your failure or success is your style of leadership and the chain of command that you design.”

— Robert Greene

241. “What people lack in life is not more reality but illusion, fantasy, play.”

— Robert Greene

242. “Remember: seduction is a game of attention, of slowly filling the other person’s mind with your presence. Distance and inattention will create the opposite effect, and can be used as a tactic when the need arises.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

244. “In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems enigmatic instantly draws attention. Never make it too clear what you are doing or about to do. Do not show all your cards. An air of mystery heightens your presence; it also creates anticipation – everyone.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

246. “Understand: the greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash. What happens in such a case is that you do not master the basics; you have no real vocabulary at your disposal. What you mistake for being creative and distinctive is more likely an imitation of other people’s style, or personal rantings that do not really express anything.”

— Robert Greene

247. “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

248. “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

249. “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

250. “Never Be the Bearer of Bad News. The king kills the messenger who brings bad news: This is a cliche but there is truth to it. You must struggle and if necessary lie and cheat to be sure that the lot of the bearer of bad news falls on a colleague, never on you. Bring only good news and your approach will gladden your master.”

— Robert Greene