Top 500 Robert Greene Quotes (2024 Update)
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251. “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

252. “Practical knowledge is the ultimate commodity, and is what will pay you dividends for decades to come – far more than the paltry increase in pay you might receive at some seemingly lucrative position that offers fewer learning opportunities.”

— Robert Greene

253. “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

254. “Without a worthy opponent a man or group cannot grow stronger.”

— Robert Greene

255. “Excuses satisfy no one and apologies make everyone uncomfortable.”

— Robert Greene

256. “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

257. “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

258. “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

259. “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

260. “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

261. “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

262. “For Pericles it would be nous, the ancient Greek word for “mind” or “intelligence.” Nous is a force that permeates the universe, creating meaning and order. The human mind is naturally attracted to this order; this is the source of our intelligence. For.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

265. “Once envy reveals itself for what it is, the only solution is often to flee the presence of the enviers, leaving them to stew in a hell of their own creation.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

267. “It is estimated that over 65 percent of all human communication is nonverbal but that people pick up and internalize only about 5 percent of this information.”

— Robert Greene

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

— Robert Greene

269. “Strategic warriors operate much differently. They think ahead toward their long-term goals, decide which fights to avoid and which are inevitable, know how to control and channel their emotions. When forced to fight, they do so with indirection and subtle maneuver, making their manipulations hard to trace. In this way they can maintain the peaceful exterior so cherished in these political times.”

— Robert Greene

270. “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. – LEONARDO DA VINCI In.”

— Robert Greene

271. “What I fear is not the enemy’s strategy but our own mistakes.”

— Robert Greene

272. “Never appear overly greedy for attention, then, for it signals insecurity, and insecurity drives power away. Understand that there are times when it is not in your interest to be the center of attention. When in the presence of a king or queen, for instance, or the equivalent thereof, bow and retreat to the shadows; never compete.”

— Robert Greene

273. “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

274. “Your false self is the accumulation of all the voice you have internalized from other people-parents and friends who want you to conform to their ideas of what you should be like and what you should do, as well as societal pressures to adhere to certain values that can easily seduce you. It also includes the voice of your own ego, which constantly tries to protect you from from unflattering truths.”

— Robert Greene

275. “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

276. “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. Emotions cloud reason, and if you cannot see the situation clearly, you cannot prepare for and respond to it with any degree of control.”

— Robert Greene

277. “Whistleblowers get fired and shot or crack up. You have to decide what you want to do. Do you want a career, or do you want to be an advocate? And where I’ve been an advocate, I do it not in my backyard. If I’m going to fight, I don’t do it in the backyard. In other words, I can get more done by not doing it in the backyard. I can train my students in the right way to do things.”

— Robert Greene

278. “Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes.”

— Robert Greene

279. “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

280. “What draws attention draws power.”

— Robert Greene

281. “If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped inside it, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game. That will only render you powerless, and powerlessness will make you miserable. Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power. In fact, the better you are at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become.”

— Robert Greene

282. “Warriors focus on what they do have, the strengths that they do possess and that they must use creatively. Knowing when to slow down, to renew, to retrench, they outlast their opponents. They play for the long term.”

— Robert Greene

283. “You cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others.”

— Robert Greene

284. “If there is any instrument you must fall in love with and fetishize, it is the human brain – the most miraculous, awe-inspiring, information-processing tool devised in the known universe, with a complexity we can’t even begin to fathom, and with dimensional powers that far outstrip any piece of technology in sophistication and usefulness.”

— Robert Greene

285. “The first step toward becoming rational is to understand our fundamental irrationality. There are two factors that should render this more palatable to our egos: nobody is exempt from the irresistible effect of emotions on the mind, not even the wisest among us; and to some extent irrationality is a function of the structure of our brains and is wired into our very nature by the way we process emotions. Being irrational is almost beyond our control.”

— Robert Greene

286. “Power is a game, and in games you do not judge your opponents by their intentions but by the effects of their actions.”

— Robert Greene

287. “Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.”

— Robert Greene

288. “Once it is solid, do not let yourself get angry or defensive at the slanderous comments of your enemies – that reveals insecurity, not confidence in your reputation.”

— Robert Greene

289. “Goethe epitomizes what was known in the Renaissance as the Ideal of the Universal Man – a person so steeped in all forms of knowledge that his mind grows closer to the reality of nature itself and sees secrets that are invisible to most people.”

— Robert Greene

290. “What limits individuals as well as nations is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are. As we grow older, we become more rooted in the past. Habit takes over. Something that has worked for us before becomes a doctrine, a shell to protect us from reality. Repetition replaces creativity.”

— Robert Greene

291. “Charmers. First, they don’t talk much about themselves, which heightens their mystery and disguises their limitations. Second, they seem to be interested in us, and their interest is so delightfully focused that we relax and open up to them. Finally Charmers are pleasant to be around. They have none of most people’s ugly qualities – nagging, complaining, self-assertion. They seem to know what pleases.”

— Robert Greene

292. “His moves intrigued her, each of them keeping her waiting for the next one – she even enjoyed her jealousy and confusion, for sometimes any emotion is better than the boredom of security.”

— Robert Greene

293. “Money must circulate to bring power.”

— Robert Greene

294. “You are like a hunter: your knowledge of every detail of the forest and of the ecosystem as a whole will give you many more options for survival and success.”

— Robert Greene

295. “Be like vapor. Do not give your opponents anything solid to attack; watch as they exhaust themselves pursuing you, trying to cope with your elusiveness. Only formlessness allows you to truly surprise your enemies – by the time they figure out where you are and what you are up to, it is too late.”

— Robert Greene

296. “First, it is essential that you begin with one skill that you can master, and that serves as a foundation for acquiring others. You must avoid at all cost the idea that you can manage learning several skills at a time.”

— Robert Greene

297. “Sometimes, however, it is better to take risks and play the most capricious, unpredictable move.”

— Robert Greene

298. “The pain is kind of challenge your mind presents – will you learn how to focus and move past boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction?”

— Robert Greene

299. “Never try to seduce someone who is of your own type. You will be like two puzzles missing the same parts.”

— Robert Greene

300. “Your eyes must be on the larger trends that govern events, on that which is not immediately visible. Never lose sight of your long-term goals. With an elevated perspective, you will have the patience and clarity to reach almost any objective.”

— Robert Greene