"Many people spend time studying the properties of animals or herbs; how much more important it would be to study those of people, with whom we must live or die!"- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: To understand social dynamics and power we must study and understand people and become a master psychologist.
Insight: It is important to recongise motivation through the social signals people give off.
"Avoid outshining the master. All superiority is odious, but the superiority of a subject over his prince is not only stupid, it is fatal. This is a lesson that the stars in the sky teach us—they may be related to the sun, and just as brilliant, but they never appear in her company."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Displaying talents too much can inspire fear and insecurity, particularly in superiors.
Insight: Displaying talents can stir up resentment, envy, and other insecurities.
Insight: It is not a weakness to disguise strengths if they lead to power in the end.
Principle: Make those above you feel comfortably superior.
Principle: Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are.
"Know how to use enemies for your own profit. You must learn to grab a sword not by its blade, which would cut you, but by the handle, which allows you to defend yourself. The wise man profits more from his enemies, than a fool from his friends."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Friends [because of social comparison and proximity to you] are quicker to become envious.
Insight: Hiring a former enemy can make them more loyal to you as they have more to prove.
Principle: Never put too much trust in friends.
Principle: Learn how to use your enemies.
"Be ostentatious and be seen.... What is not seen is as though it did not exist.... It was light that first caused all creation to shine forth. Display fills up many blanks, covers up deficiencies, and gives everything a second life, especially when it is backed by genuine merit."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Everything is judged based on appearance - the unseen counts for nothing.
Insight: Notoriety can bring power.
Insight: It is better to do something and attract criticism than be ignored for doing nothing.
Principle: Stand out.
Principle: Attract attention by appearing larger and more mysterious than the average.
Principle: Cultivate an unforgettable image, even if controversial.
"If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation.... Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery stirs up veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit.... In this manner you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: As objective power rises, we should adapt - cultivating an air of mystery can help us to develop an aura of power whilst being measured.
"There is much to be known, life is short, and life is not life without knowledge. It is therefore an excellent device to acquire knowledge from everybody. Thus, by the sweat of another’s brow, you win the reputation of being an oracle."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Outsourcing work to others saves time and energy and makes you appear efficient and fast.
Insight: People that do the work are often forgotten, it is those that are at the top that are remembered.
Insight: There are times when taking the credit for the work of others is not wise: when power is not firmly established.
Insight: To take credit for the work of others, your position must we unshakeable, or you will be accused of deception.
Principle: Never do what others can do for you.
Principle: Know when letting other people share credit serves you.
Principle: Do not be greedy with taking credit if you have a master above you.
"The truth is generally seen, rarely heard."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: No one can argue with a demonstrated proof.
"Recognize the fortunate so that you may choose their company, and the unfortunate so that you may avoid them. Misfortune is usually the crime of folly, and among those who suffer from it there is no malady more contagious: Never open your door to the least of misfortunes, for, if you do, many others will follow in its train.... Do not die of another’s misery."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: We can get pulled down by the misery of others.
Insight: Emotional states are infectious.
Insight: Some people are born to unfortunate circumstances, others bring it upon themselves - avoid these people.
Principle: Do not get drawn to helping people too much, especially when it draws too much from your energy.
Principle: Associate with the happy and fortunate.
"Make people depend on you. More is to be gained from such dependence than courtesy. He who has slaked his thirst, immediately turns his back on the well, no longer needing it. When dependence disappears, so does civility and decency, and then respect. The first lesson which experience should teach you is to keep hope alive but never satisfied, keeping even a royal patron ever in need of you."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Power comes from getting people to do as you wish - especially without force or coercion.
Insight: The strongest position is when others rely on you.
Insight: Having others dependent on you is also in some ways making you reliant on them.
"Use absence to create respect and esteem. If presence diminishes fame, absence augments it. A man who when absent is regarded as a lion becomes when present something common and ridiculous. Talents lose their luster if we become too familiar with them, for the outer shell of the mind is more readily seen than its rich inner kernel. Even the outstanding genius makes use of retirement so that men may honor him and so that the yearning aroused by his absence may cause him to be esteemed."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Absence of something valuable makes its value increase.
Insight: Strong presence draws power, until it doesn't.
Insight: Once you have established yourself as powerful or valuable, the more you are seen, the more common you appear.
Principle: Create value through scarcity.
Principle: Make what you offer rare and hard to find.
"Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man.... Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations — they are the device of another to get you into his power..."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: It is wise to be patient in taking sides.
Insight: By remaining independent, others will seek you out for you opinion or favour.
Principle: Do not be drawn to the conflicts of others.
"Men of great abilities are slow to act. for it is easier to avoid occasions for committing yourself than to come well out of a commitment. Such occasions test your judgment; it is safer to avoid them than to emerge victorious from them. One obligation leads to a greater one, and you come very near to the brink of disaster."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: You cannot control the opinions, temperament, or actions of those around you.
Principle: Master your emotions.
Principle: Wait before acting.
"Regard it as more courageous not to become involved in an engagement than to win in battle, and where there is already one interfering fool, take care that there shall not be two."- Baltasar Gracián
Principle: Do not get involved in that which does not concern you.
"Know how to make use of stupidity: The wisest man plays this card at times. There are occasions when the highest wisdom consists in appearing not to know — you must not be ignorant but capable of playing it. It is not much good being wise among fools and sane among lunatics. He who poses as a fool is not a fool. The best way to be well received by all is to clothe yourself in the skin of the dumbest of brutes."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: No one likes feeling stupider than others - you can take advantage of this by making people feel smarter than you.
Insight: People rarely believe that they can be outsmarted by people they feel are not as smart as them.
Insight: You can cover up misdoings by appearing to have authority and knowledge so that people believe what you say.
Principle: Never insult someone's intelligence.
Principle: Subtly reassure people that they are smarter than you are.
"Prize intensity more than extensity. Perfection resides in quality, not quantity. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity, and it is the misfortune of men with wide general interests that while they would like to have their finger in every pie, they have one in none. Intensity gives eminence, and rises to the heroic in matters sublime."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Working at something with intensity is usually more effective.
Insight: Sometimes dispersal of energy can be effective to disrupt a larger power, guerrilla tactics in warfare for example.
Principle: Focus energy on where you are strongest.
"Know how to be all things to all men. A discreet Proteus—a scholar among scholars, a saint among saints. That is the art of winning over everyone, for like attracts like. Take note of temperaments and adapt yourself to that of each person you meet— follow the lead of the serious and jovial in turn, changing your mood discreetly."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: You do not have to be defined by circumstances or the situation you were born into.
Principle: Recreate yourself in ways that are best for you.
Principle: Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you.
"Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Public image depends more on what is concealed rather than what is revealed.
Insight: The wise mask their mistakes and shift attention to others.
Principle: Appear wise, good, and efficient.
Principle: Do not be put in positions to appear to make mistakes or commit bad acts.
Principle: Use others as scapegoats.
Principle: Remove yourself from being the executioner or bearer of bad news.
"Do everything pleasant yourself, everything unpleasant through third parties. By adopting the first course you win favour, by taking the second you deflect ill will. Important affairs often require rewards and punishments. Let only the good come from you and the evil from others."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: The powerful always seem to be unhurried and unburdened.
Insight: The powerful know how to find the right people to put in the effort on their behalf.
"Always set to work without misgivings on the score of imprudence. Fear of failure in the mind of a performer is, for an onlooker, already evidence of failure.... Actions are dangerous when there is doubt as to their wisdom; it would be safer to do nothing."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Doubt feeds timid actions and poor execution.
Insight: The mistakes taken with bold action can be fixed with more bold action.
Insight: Boldness makes others feel at ease.
Insight: Boldness should not be behind all actions, only when a clear path to success lies ahead.
Principle: Do not venture down a path when you are unsure.
"Keep the extent of your abilities unknown. The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honoured by all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great."- Baltasar Gracián
Principle: Make sure your actions appear effortless.
Principle: Conceal the toil, practice and wisdom that goes into your actions.
Principle: When you act, appear to be able to do much more.
Principle: Teach no one your tricks, or they will be used against you.
"Find out each man’s thumbscrew. ’Tis the art of setting their wills in action. It needs more skill than resolution. You must know where to get at anyone. Every volition has a special motive which varies according to taste. All men are idolaters, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure. Skill consists in knowing these idols in order to bring them into play. Knowing any man’s mainspring of motive you have as it were the key to his will."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Everyone has weaknesses, insecurities, or secret pleasures.
Principle: Aim to discover opponents weaknesses, and drive into them.
"Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external precepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority. Come to hold yourself in awe, and you will have no need of Seneca’s imaginary tittor."- Baltasar Gracián
"Everyone should be royal after his own fashion. Let all your actions, even though they are not those of a king, be, in their own sphere, worthy of one. Be sublime in your deeds, lofty in your thoughts; and in all your doings show that you deserve to be a king even though you are not one in reality."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: The way you conduct yourself often determines how you are treated.
Principle: Act according to your values.
"As some make gossip out of everything, so others make much ado about everything. They are always talking big, [and] take everything seriously, making a quarrel and a mystery of it. You should take very few grievances to heart, for to do so is to give yourself groundless worry. It is a topsyturvy way of behaving to take to heart cares which you ought to throw over your shoulder. Many things which seemed important [at the time] turn out to be of no account when they are ignored; and others, which seem trifling, appear formidable when you pay attention to them. Things can easily be settled at the outset, but not so later on. In many cases, the remedy itself is the cause of the disease: to let things be is not the least satisfactory of life’s rules."- Baltasar Gracián
"Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: We can make something insignificant appear significant simply by giving it attention.
Principle: Ignore small problems.
Principle: Show contempt for things that you want but cannot have.
"It is easy to run into danger by trying to swim against the stream. Only a Socrates could attempt to do that. Disagreement is regarded as offensive because it is a condemnation of the views of others; the numbers of the disgruntled grow, on account either of some matter that has been the object of censure or of some person who has praised it: Truth is for the few, error is as usual as it is vulgar. Nor is the wise man to be recognised by what he says in the marketplace, for he speaks there not with his own voice, but with that of universal folly, however much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it: The wise man avoids being contradicted as sedulously as he avoids contradicting; the publicity of censure is withheld from that which readily provokes it. Thought is free; it cannot and should not be coerced; retire into the sanctuary of your silence and if you sometimes allow yourself to break it, do so under the aegis of a discreet few."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: People tend to look down upon those that have unconventional ideas or ways.
Principle: Blend in and nurture the common ways.
Principle: Share your uniqueness only with those that will appreciate it.
"Beware of stepping into a great man’s shoes—you will have to accomplish twice as much to surpass him. Those who follow are taken for imitators. No matter how much they sweat, they will never shed that burden. It is an uncommon skill to find a new path for excellence, a modern route to celebrity. There are many roads to singularity, not all of them well traveled. The newest ones can be arduous, but they are often shortcuts to greatness."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: That which happens first always appears better and more original.
Principle: Do not get lost in the shadow of the past.
Principle: Establish your own name and identity by differentiating yourself.
"Upon occasion, reveal a harmless defect in your character. For the envious accuse the most perfect of sinning by having no sins. They become an Argus, all eyes for finding fault with excellence—it is their only consolation. Do not let envy burst with its own venom— affect some lapse in valour or intellect, so as to disarm it beforehand. You thus wave your red cape before the Horns of Envy, in order to save your immortality."- Baltasar Gracián
"Know how to triumph over envy and malice. Here contempt, although prudent, counts, indeed, for little; magnanimity is better. A good word concerning one who speaks evil of you cannot be praised too highly: there is no revenge more heroic than that brought about by those merits and attainments which frustrate and torment the envious. Every stroke of good fortune is a further twist of the rope round the neck of the ill-disposed and the heaven of the envied is hell for the envious. To convert your good fortune into poison for your enemies is held to be the most severe punishment you can inflict on them. The envious man dies not only once but as many times as the person he envies lives to hear the voice of praise; the eternity of the latter’s fame is the measure of the former’s punishment: the one is immortal in his glory, the latter in his misery. The trumpet of fame which sounds immortality for the one heralds death for the other, who is sentenced to be choked to death on his own envy."- Baltasar Gracián
Insight: Envy creates silent enemies.
Insight: Appearing to have no faults is often a source of envy.
Principle: Occasionally show defects (Pratfalls) and admit to harmless vices to appear more approachable.