Machiavellian Maxims

1. Any and all weaknesses can be used against you, and in conflict, will be. As
such, weaponize your weaknesses by making them known; hide them in plain sight.
Wear your weaknesses like armor, flaunt them, and you deprive your opponents the use
of ammunition that would otherwise discredit you.

2. If weakness is speculated, deny it. If weakness is known, spin it. If it is directly

observed, dismiss it. Should it look profitable, leverage it for status in the victimhood
hierarchy.

3. Justification can only exist in respectful exchanges. When you are disliked,
justifications are deemed excuses, your guilt, pre-determined.

4. Do not defend against your attackers, attack them; justification is a Machiavellian

fallacy. Do not justify, stipulate.

5. People are like stocks, acquire assets, avoid/drop liabilities and ignore market
rumors; acquire insider information wherever possible.

6. The only difference between the toxic and the unlucky is the unlucky bring you
down inadvertently, avoid both.

7. Attacks reveal intent, defense reveals priority. You dont defend the unimportant.
You dont attack allies unless its a decoy, this simple concept can be extrapolated to
any situation.

8. The battle of the sexes is the only war where crushing the opposition isnt victory.
No, a man must avoid checkmate and stalemate, he must continuously put his woman
in check. This and only this is victory for both sides.

9. Everything is war in a different set of clothing. Love, business, politics, wherever

there are competing interests there is a battlefield, and wherever there is a battlefield,
there is war.

10. When things fall apart, be ready for total war.

11. Dont insult the king in the throne room. If you must insult him, do so only
amongst those you are confident share a mutual disdain. Lse-majest is dangerous, in
this context a king is anyone you rely on socially, politically, economically etc.

12. Lust of all kinds begets deceit, desire is good until it isnt.

13. Machiavellianism is the art of wielding power, how its wielded is determined by
the wielders morality or lack thereof. Dont blame the strategy, blame the soul of its
employer.
14. Machiavellianism does not determine ones morals, ones morals determine the
use of Machiavellianism. He who believes he is too moral for Machiavellianism is no
more moral than he is an idiot.

15. When people dont like you, their questions are attacks. Sometimes these attacks
are disguised as concerns, other times they are blatant. Whenever youre asked a
question, gauge the legitimacy of the question. Insincere questions must be met with
insincere answers, if any answer at all.

16. Do not trust those who overwhelm you with questions. They may simply be very
curious, but it is more likely they are searching for dents in your armor. The line between
curiosity and interrogation is thin, and people do not wear uniforms.

17. Doubling down on your position or ignoring the challenge usually trumps an
apology.

18. Ignore your ignorer. To ignore your ignorer is to enter a war of most silent
attrition. Who will speak first when silence is golden? Whoever speaks first loses.
Whoever speaks first admits they need the other more, no matter what plausible
deniability they may retroactively invoke to disguise the fact.

19. Ignoring is a non-response response; no response is a neutral response. Lots of

neutral responses hint at a negative underlying sentiment, for people who like you
struggle to ignore you.

20. Where bullying fails, charm succeeds and where charm fails, bullying succeeds.
One should substitute in hard power when soft power fails and vice versa.

21. People are enticed by the allure of circumvention, operating outside the rules
carries its own thrill. People feel good when they get away with things.

22. The trick to dealing with psychopaths lies in possessing a full awareness of the
conditionality of the transaction, for they are scant in sentiment.

23. Not knowing what a psychopath wants from you is equivalent to operating within
a perpetually detonating flashbang. If you cannot discern what they want, cease
dealings.

24. Being charming is the result of happiness or success, not of virtue. It is amusing
that people oft fail to make this distinction, they conflate charm with virtue. As a matter
of prudence, the more charming, the more dangerous.

25. Whether you realize it or not, the powerful are always testing, always evaluating.
They yield milligrams of respect only to those who consistently pass their evaluations; a
fluke of success will not earn you their respect, itll get you a glance.
26. Real victims suffer in silence, posers pretending to be victims do so to gain
money and status. Be wary of loud victims they are almost always playacting.

27. People dont want to be betrayed, but most will betray if it suits them to; the
standard of morality people demand of others is higher than that which they demand of
themselves. The coldest psychopath will demand the deepest altruism and the most
devout loyalty, beware coltishness then.

28. Interpretation is always perverted to suit the agenda of the interpreter, whoever
controls the flow of interpretation dominates.

29. Trust the average woman as much as you trust your government, occasionally
theres a good candidate, most arent worth your vote.

30. Strong personalities hate the weak and distrust the strong. A man who considers
himself a king rarely wants to share the room with another.

31. Never hesitate to work on your verbal dexterity, vocabulary and comprehension.
Debate lots with people who dont matter. Strong articulation is a form of soft power.

32. Theres a lot of freedom in stupidity, playing dumb is oft profitable.

33. Too much perception can niggle a persons paranoia, perceptiveness is

threatening to those aware of their ill-nature. In suspicious company, appear less
perceptive.

34. Appraise a rule by its worth. Do not defy a rule for the sake of defiance. Some
rules protect the ruled, others protect rulers distinguish.

35. Were all players in a game. Youre a player or a piece on the board, you move or
youre moved. You play the game, or the game plays you.

36. You cant not play the game. You dont beat the game by denying the game;
deaths the only escape from the game. Until then, play well to live well.

37. Beware the encroacher, an individual characterized by ubiquitous and uninvited

insertion of their person into your social affairs. Out of a need to be noticed in the desire
for social elevation, whilst his status is inferior he will extend his hand with a smile.
Once he moves past you, he will forget you, his intentions for you are not sincere, and
you are merely a piece in his ascent to success.

38. The encroacher targets your popularity in an attempt to siphon it through

association.
39. The encroacher gives themselves away by either A: absence of pleasantry B:
lacing their pleasantry with subtle and sporadic undermining. Do not be an encroacher,
the quickest way to garner the favor of the powerful is to befriend them, not to irritate
them with persistent public exhibitions of your self-ordained superiority.

40. Charm trumps more aggressive manipulations when dealing with the perceptive.
The perceptive like being charmed, their awareness of the seduction does not negate its
effect.

41. Always appeal to incentive, never to mercy.

42. Too much perception is threatening, even intimidating, people distrust you when
they realize you are as perceptive as you are, even if you mean them no ill will. When
people know you have the potential to destroy them, like nuclear material, they
quarantine you.

43. Legitimate concern is rare, more often than not displayed concern is a means to
an end, a foot in the door to seize the moral high ground.

44. Anything you say can be twisted to make you look bad, and it will be, because
thats power. Its how hearts and minds are won, politicians and the mass media do it for
a living neither is starving.

45. If you have a firm grip on Machiavellianism, it will be difficult for women to exploit
you. On the flip, theyll be harder to love too.

46. Narcissism is antifragile in the sense it makes no distinction between love & hate,
only attention and inattention.

47. The secretiveness of privacy drives people mad, even if there is nothing to hide,
the reluctance to reveal creates suspicion. To ensure the safety of a secret, the
existence of the secret must be kept secret. As soon as somebody becomes aware of a
secret they know not the nature of, they will be compelled to unearth it at any cost, thus
threatening the secret.

48. The difference between an interview and an interrogation is merely a matter of

perception, all interviews are a collection of shit tests.

49. When you are being interrogated and dont realize it, the topic will rapidly change
in order to determine what youre most uncomfortable with. This topic will then be
focused on, I call this vulnerability reconnaissance.

50. You nearly always learn more about somebody in an informal setting than you
would a formal one. Paranoia and thus mental defenses are greater in formal settings,
to truly get to know somebody you must mingle informally. Of course, as much as this
opens them up, it opens you up too.
51. Advice that wasnt asked for is rarely appreciated, let alone followed. Dont give
advice that isnt asked for, dont advise everybody who asks for your insight, only advise
those you think worthy. An I dont know will keep things civil without forcing you to
waste time.

52. When you advise people you reveal more about yourself than you perhaps
realize, after all, your advice reflects the core of who you are, it reveals the why and
how rather than merely the what. Whats are easy to change, whys and hows arent,
theyre more identifying.

53. If you want someone to implement your ideas, its better to make them think your
idea is theirs. Plant the seed, give them credit for your thinking, and theyll believe their
repetition of your idea makes it their creation.

54. The quickest way to gain peoples trust is to help them.

55. Liking animals and being religious creates an appearance of uprightness, people
of ill-nature wear these appearances to disarm through disguise.

56. People dont dislike being tricked, they hate realizing they were tricked. Tell lies
that cannot or will not be investigated, compulsive lying is the purview of the histrionic
fool.

57. Beauty oft conceals bad intentions.

58. Be magnanimous to friends, civil to strangers and ruthless to foes; furthermore,

know whos who.

59. Hijacking is a special kind of Machiavellianism, for it wears the agenda of another
whilst pursuing its own, like a metaphorical Russian doll, it hides an agenda within an
agenda.

60. Read between the lines, if you can deduce why somebody is asking a question
and you do not like the reasoning for their question, do not deign an answer. Ignore or
dismiss traps, do not fall into them.

61. When someone attempts to undermine rather than refute you, theyre the enemy.

62. Undermining is personal, refutation isnt. Refutation communicates I believe

youre wrong due to the findings of the available evidence. Undermining communicates
Im going to humiliate you because your opinions invoke my disdain. Refutations are
logical retorts, undermining is interrelational violence. Learn to distinguish between the
two, for they oft appear similar.
63. Bending the rules is no more than the abuse of technicality to circumvent the
spirit of the rule without violating its letter.

64. Love doesnt conquer psychopathy.

65. Only pick fights thatll yield profit; pettiness will erode your credibility, fighting on
many fronts will exhaust you.

66. The crab bucket mentality is pervasive, a jealous friend is a betrayal waiting to
happen. Know when to cut the gangrenous limb, do not allow the sentimental nostalgia
to sustain poisonous ties.

67. If you are drawn into something emotionally, the odds of damaging your
reputation and engaging in regrettable acts exponentially increases.

68. Many arrogant men believe anger is the safe emotion they can display without
real consequence, this belief is folly. Man should endeavor to be mindful, for this will
allow him to rein in unruly emotion.

69. He who does not control his emotions is puppeteered by them. Strict adherence
to emotional data is tactical death, whilst ignoring emotion idiotic, and suppressing it
tiresome. As such, emotion should be channeled, not ignored or obeyed.

70. On national anniversaries of loss or celebration, people are at their most

vulnerable. It is at times of heightened cultural emotivism that reflection takes root in the
mediocre, and filled with regret, the populace is at their most manipulable.

71. Self-deprecation builds trust, when people see even minor imperfections, theyre
endeared by the transparency.

72. People are susceptible to negativity bias, if something is negative, it is more likely
to be believed without rigorous investigation. Acts of virtue come with a burden of proof,
acts of unvirtue do not.

73. Appear easily provoked, then ignore those who see it as an opportunity to attack;
this is good for enticing the lurking foe to reveal himself. Present an illusion of
disordered vulnerability, seduce an attack, and by the time your foe realizes the ruse it
is too late, he has revealed himself.

74. An effective strategist knows when to utilize counterintuitive gambits to get a

better view of the battlefield. For example, if you are strong in one area, make your
enemy think you are weak. If you are weak in an area, make your enemy think you are
strong. If you confuse the enemys data points, he cannot successfully analyses you. If
he cannot analyses you, he cannot defeat you.
75. Be wary the plausible deniability of jokes, its just a joke is the most common
phrase used to disguise a transgression. All good jokes contain truth, as such if one
crosses your boundaries under the guise of humor, they are still trespassing, humor but
smoke and mirrors for such trespass.

76. He who acts boldly under the cloak of sadistic humor is not to be trusted, for
humor is the jesters shield and sword.

77. People who get caught doing something they shouldnt do not reveal the
complete truth at once. they opt to reveal the least self-incriminating aspects first.

78. The objective of trickle truth is damage control, to minimize the damage done to
ones reputation when a loss of reputation is all but unavoidable.

79. As lies compound, trust erodes, and the more difficult it becomes to lie. The more
it is perceived that you lie, the better you must be at lying to successfully do so. As
such, compulsive lying is tactically unsound lie only when necessary.

80. Trust can be earned and spent, but if you spend too much too quickly, your
account with the betrayed individual is permanently closed, no matter what you do, you
will always be spent.

81. People love to be seduced, but they do not like to know how. Honesty doesnt
pay when transparency compromises the beauty of the illusion that sustains you. Like
any magic trick, people enjoy the perception of mystery, not what creates it.

82. Apply seduction to romance or sales, never reveal your tricks. Give your pitch,
not your essence.

83. Effortlessness and dismissiveness foster an appearance of strength.

84. If people feel judged by you, they hate you. In diplomacy, suggest via statement,
do not undermine with command or overt dispute.

85. Honesty is ugly, most people want their opinions validated, not disproved. It is but
a minority of intellectuals who enjoy being disproved.

86. Manufacture a threat and you can sell its solution.

87. Control both sides and simulate a conflict, monitor organic responses for
potential allies and enemies.

88. Utilize counterintuitive strategies, it pays to create a group to undermine your

interests. By creating a group to threaten your interests, you prevent a concealed threat
from mobilizing. Those interested in undermining your interests will join your artificial
opposition rather than form their own.
89. The truly best deceivers begin with themselves, and therefore tend to be more
emotional than rational in disposition.

90. Environments come with varying expectations and codes of behaviour,

environments define expectation unless you are bigger than your environment.

91. It is better to define what will be expected of you, than allow others to define their
expectations. If you do not define what people expect of you, they will define it for you.

92. He who defines his role has more freedom, for people become their roles.

93. Your benefactors should overestimate you and your enemies should
underestimate you.

94. The lower the average intellect of a mans company, the more he must show
aggression to be respected, more intelligent company demands the inverse.

95. As a Machiavellian, it is always pertinent to ascertain the intellect of ones

company, and then adjust ones demeanor as relevant. A person who cannot dial-up
their personality up or down is unfit to wield power.

96. Intelligent narcissists require consistent displays of histrionic aggression in order

to respect somebody.

97. Acting is necessary. Just as one key cannot open every lock to every door, a
single disposition cannot unlock every favor from every person, as such, adaptability.

98. People are like safes with combinations, by correctly calibrating your traits to
align with their values, you unlock their trust, desire, and respect. Incorrect calibrations
create apathy and disdain.

99. Disagreement is acceptable for it can teach, but sabotage is never. A leaders
task is to discern the prior from the latter. When in doubt, assume sabotage.

100. It is important to work smarter than harder, but better to be seen as dumb and
hard-working. Few like a rich man who earns more in a less arduous condition, for
jealousy of his privileged position is rife. A smart man earns more than a hard-working
man, yet a smart, hard-working man who appears average outlearns both.

101. Its easy not to outshine the brilliant, but its difficult not to outshine the
incompetent. Regardless, know your place and behave accordingly.

102. Ignore powerless idiots, ridicule powerful ones. Powerless idiocy is an

annoyance, powerful idiocy is a problem. Relevance and status shall determine
classification.
103. The man confined to reason will be humiliated by psychic warfare, whilst the man
confined to cunning will have his sophistry undressed. Logic and cunning are the most
powerful psychological tools, therefore you would do well to cultivate them both. To
cultivate neither is to be weak and to cultivate one is to be average, but to cultivate both
this is to be dangerous. [Read More Here]

104. Logicians look for reasons, Machiavellians look for loopholes.

105. Incentive is the most persuasive use of soft power, with fear its hard power
counterpart. Those who cant be bribed can be threatened, whilst those who cant be
threatened can be bribed very few are immune to both.

106. Be egotistical only when necessary. [Read More Here]

107. You bond with people over the things they hold dear, pets, media franchises,
hobbies this is how you gain trust. In matters of trust one should appeal to emotion,
never to reason. Give plenty of reasons you should be trusted, give nonsense reasons
for why you shouldnt.

108. In social matters, people do not reward he who is most logical, but rather he who
is most impressive.

109. Cunning and rhetoric almost always triumph over logic, fact and statistic in
matters of persuasion.

110. Despair in the moment is tantamount to forfeiture.

111. Most are foolish, instead of befriending power, they hate on it. These people
arent cut out for the game, for one does not acquire power by hating the powerful.

112. A champion must always defend his crown, for as much as he is admired, there
is always a man who lusts to take the powerfuls wealth and status for himself.

113. The least patriotic leaders one who so utterly dominates his kingdom, that he
does not allow it to flourish out of the insecurity that permitting so would remove him
from power.

114. All abusable systems are abused, and so it is folly to expect any system not to be
abused. Systems should be designed on the assumption they will be abused, and
where less than infallible, retroactively amended to be so.

115. Absolute dignity is rare, most pride is no more than resistance that can be
removed for a price. The weaker the ego, the lower the price. For the right price,
fantasies of all persuasions find manifestation.
116. In matters of effective sophistry, one must calibrate language to the discerned
intelligence of their listener.

117. Disdain precarious alliances, it is better to have no alliance than a precarious

one, for weak alliances foreshadow betrayal.

118. Taste isnt just a matter of food or scent, but likewise of personality. One mans
annoyance is anothers joy, delicate tastes require finesse. And yet if is a taste is too
demanding, specific or exacting, one may wish to wholly reject the fetishist notion and
cease all association.

119. Dont become the slave of another mans tastes. Exercise prerogative with
association. If you know the taste you can leverage its fantasy, but if the taste is
concealed and used as a benchmark for invalidating you, leave.

120. People decide quickly who they do and do not like. When factions form, anybody
not on your side should be assumed to collaborate with the enemy. As for those who do
join your cause, analyses their motives.

121. Whilst punishment should be swift, reward should be gradual.

122. It is far more profitable to see things from your point of view than from the
oppositions. The more you acknowledge the oppositions point of view, the more power
you give it. Therefore for your point of view to dominate, you must dismiss your
enemys.

123. Displays of agility typically indicate one of two things: youre being mesmerized
by a diversion, or youre witnessing mastery.

124. Dont play cards you dont need to play. Holding all the cards does not make you
indestructible, you may still lose if you play your cards poorly. Execution is everything, a
poorly played card is worse than one not played.

125. Tailor your approach to the personality youre dealing with.

126. Nothing is more compelling than fantasy, do not underestimate its power to
convince or exploit.

127. In matters of persuasion one should appeal to emotion, not reason. Where this
fails, use sophistry.

128. Logical fallacies double as effective Machiavellian power plays, for logic is
antithetical to cunning.
129. Anticipate your opponents moves, preempting where possible and implementing
contingencies where not.

130. An intellectual more than anybody must become Machiavellian, for it is this and
this alone that will save them from predacious egos. [See More Here.]

131. Delivery is more persuasive than substance, optimize appearance and strike
when the dime is right, for masterful delivery can make even the mundane into magic.

132. In matters of defection it is more effective to offer revenge than money.

133. It is foolish to sentimentally gauge the chance of betrayal, but rather, one should
assess the incentive and capacity for doing so. Offer disincentives to maximize loyalty.

134. Your most intimate enemies will admire you, copy you and take all your advice
only to use it for an agenda that undermines yours.

135. Each personality is a puzzle in which favor can be unlocked by demonstrating the
traits desired by the personality, learn a personality and complement it to influence it.

136. Apologies are oft ineffectual, for they stir up resentment and exacerbate matters
by highlighting wrongdoing. A leader should not show regret, he should ignore, deny
acknowledgement, or spin a negative into a positive. To regret is to show weakness and
invite belittlement.

137. Appear unappealing to those who dont appeal to you, for it is better to be
undesired than to be desired by the undesirable.

138. To permit insolence from one is to court it from all; crush the insolent or deprive
them a platform, lest you earn a reputation for timidity.

139. The most terrible action can be bred from the best of intention. Be mindful of bad
advice from the well intended, they may mean well but unintentional or not, their
misinformation will destroy you.

140. The power players have learned to harness the zealous delusions of their pawns
to dress unvirtuous agendas in the clothing of nobility.

141. Anybody who can conceive of evil can enact it.

142. Conceal your intentions whilst ascertaining the competitions, he who has the
most correct data wins; always be mindful of misinformation.

143. Most believe one should never be ruthless (because its evil) or that one should
always be ruthless (because otherwise youre weak). Both are wrong.
144. Provocation is an invitation to act in a way that reduces ones power; as such,
ignoring is a skill any would-be Machiavellian would do well to master.

145. Mastery of interpersonal psychology is micro Machiavellianism, mastery of

military strategy is macro Machiavellianism and business strategy is both.

146. Transactional analysis: Every time somebody asks you a question, they want you
to give them value, or theyre looking to sabotage you. Be mindful of the blur between
curiosity and inquisition.

147. Strive for success but be cautious of it, for one who knows not how to handle it
will be robbed of the qualities that made them great; rampant success introduces an
overconfidence that diminishes reason and a complacency that destroys drive do not
be a victim of your success.

148. The histrionic weaponized their storytelling talent on the slightest whim, for
blackmail is how they obtain and chaos is how they indulge. Be wary the histrionic, for
they take root and disrupt venomously like a toxin.

149. Should you see the trifecta of: confrontation, dismissiveness and attention
seeking you have yourself a histrionic. Tread on their egg shells and succumb to
aggressive sensitivity, or reject them by refusing to deign acknowledgement.

150. Absence increases respect only when the absence is legitimate. If you ignore
somebody but are observed by the ignored engaging others, you are not absent, and so
elicit disrespect rather than respect. True absence is in disappearance, not observable
silence.

151. Its subtler to deprive than to inflict. Inflict to make a statement, deprive to attack
with the stealth of plausible deniability.

152. If you dont know how to play the game, people do not respect you, if you play
the game, people think youre untrustworthy. If one must choose, it is always better to
be distrusted than disrespected.

153. The unfocused and the stupid are easily made the puppets and pawns of those
who manufacture controversy for nothing but their own advantage.

154. When dealing with a troublesome woman, a man must realize the presumption of
innocence works in her favor. Reframe her presumed innocence, keep the focus on her
and make veiled threats with pleasant language.

155. Neither cuteness nor beauty translates into virtue, but the charm of such things
leads the idiot to believe it does.
156. Not addressing the concerns of lieutenants is one of the gravest mistakes a
general can make. Dismissal will cost morale, loyalty and cohesion.

157. The paranoid assume predation, and so in their lack of finesse make their
distrust obvious eliciting naught but disdain.

158. If you want power you have to become highly resistant to provocation, the weak
will always try to provoke you to siphon your credibility.

159. Do not reward insolence, it is far more efficient to silently dismiss than loudly
dispute. Shows of force are only necessary should one wish to set an example.

160. Never reward passive aggressiveness, for it is merely a precursor to insolence.

161. The fewer words you need to explain, the likelier you are believed. This is why
honest justification is intuited as dishonest it doth protest too much.

162. It is pointless to explain why youre rejecting somebody because they will disdain
the rejection more than they appreciate the reasoning behind your decision.

163. The rejected will use your reason for denying them as ammunition for a smear
campaign; it is wiser to deprive them data than fuel their fire. Concealment trumps
transparency in matters of rejection.

164. You may be tempted to gloat about why youre rejecting a person, but as a matter
of class and concealment, know when to stop.

165. Cost-benefit hassle to reward ratio, where hassle exceeds reward, association or
investment is unprofitable.

166. Be very suspicious of neutral people, but be as neutral as feasible yourself;

polarize only when necessary.

167. As a scientist tests his hypotheses a Machiavellian should test his strategies.

168. Utilize ambiguity as bait to ascertain interest.

169. You should be civil to strangers but it should not be easy to become your friend,
only lower the drawbridge for the worthy. A man who welcomes everybody into his
kingdom will soon enough have no kingdom to speak of; what is true of countries is
likewise of men. Pick your friends carefully.

170. The most common way people inadvertently reveal their hand is through
projection.
171. Peoples assumptions normally stem from the opinions they hold of themselves,
the more emotional the individual, the more likely they are projecting.

172. The more people want to believe, the easier it is to sell; the less people want to
believe, the easier it is to hide.

173. Use finesse when asking questions, lest you grant the impression youre
interrogating and arouse suspicions.

174. Do not quibble over small sums or tiny favors, for the pettier you are, the smaller
you seem.

175. Misdirection is superior to omission in matters of concealment.

176. The quickest way to make an ally is to pay up, and the quickest way to make an
enemy? Not paying up.

177. In matters of negotiation, once you identify the insecurities of the other party you
have the power. If they are timid, identify their insecurities and spontaneously
demonstrate qualities that assuage their fears. If they are ruthless, leverage their
insecurities to degrade their ability to negotiate for more favorable terms.

178. Find out what a person wants and youre a step closer to knowing what they
need. From here discern what they fear losing, and what they want but cant get.
Wherever there is dependence there is fear, and wherever there is fear there is
leverage. Find the fear and acquire leverage.

179. Regardless of who you deal with, be he virtuous or unvirtuous, it always pays to
know a mans fears.

180. Whoever is willing to go further will invariably win, for he who denies a winning
strategy on moral grounds forfeits victory.

181. Every powerful man needs a fall man, a man to commit dirty deeds on his behalf,
for it is in this way he will evade the deposition that follows from hate.

182. Social causes are disguises for the predators and lifestyles for the sheep.

183. Her first concern is her appearance, her second concern her cunning, both serve
the same ends.

184. Your response should be proportional to the perception of the threat, theres no
need to launch nukes when you can get the job done with a well-aimed bullet.

185. A leader must be mindful in exercising benevolence, for too much benevolence is
perceived as weakness and fosters resentment.
186. One is wise to openly support freedom of speech, but they should only do so for
as long as such speech is not deleterious to their reputation; it is almost always an act
of self folly to not censor those biting deep into their repute.

187. Be mindful of the Streisand effect, if your detractors are persistent and
resourceful, censoring will make things worse rather than better.

188. People are bolder when theyre paying and meeker when theyre paid. Caveat:
the latter doesnt apply to blackmail.

189. People want to forget, not be reminded. Very powerful. Never forget this.

190. Tu quoque is the sophists most preferred logical fallacy, for it can justify their
poor behaviour whilst simultaneously redirecting attention to the misdeeds of others.

191. Weak and strong in matters of strategy are not effects of appearance in so much
as they are a question of the tactical viability and efficacy of a plan.

192. In financial exchange, the man paid covets payment in advance whilst the man
paying seeks to pay after the fact.

193. When people retroactively change their minds, they will blame you for their
change of heart irrespective of whether its truly your fault.

194. Coincidence is the term people use to describe a chess move they dont
understand.

195. To see how ruthless life truly is, all one need do is observe the vast difference in
means between people.

196. Survival of the fittest, there is no greater truism; winners and losers, everyone
takes what they can get. Nothing is owed, everything is game.

197. Let the other man lose his cool, but be sure to keep yours, for it is the man with
the most self-control that leaves victorious.

198. The nicer the man, the more he suffers, for the world does not respect carte
blanche kindness. Forget kindness, show only magnanimity a selective kindness
backed by thoughtfulness and strength.

199. The beauty of a question is its in your power to decide whether youre going to
answer it or not.

200. Sell a person on a thing by making them think youre not selling anything. The
moment they think youre trying to sell them, theyll behave as if they hold all the power.
201. This is as true of physical action as it is of agenda pushing: that which happens
suddenly is noticed and reacted to, whilst that which happens gradually is not. In
stealth, promote gradualness. Move too quickly and you will be discovered.

202. A woman being cute is the metaphorical equivalent of a wolf adorning himself in
the attire of a woolly sheep its purposefully disarming. Recognize cuteness for the
sham that it is. Beauty is not virtue. Cuteness implies innocence, something you can be
most emphatically assured she is not.

203. The problem with trust is everybody needs it, most are too scared to give it, and
the most dangerous of humans are incapable of it.

204. Know when people are trying to earn your trust in order to exploit it. Theres a
greater likelihood you will be targeted in this fashion if youre rich or have notable power
within an organization. Corollary: the higher the stakes, the longer the plays.

205. Honesty is powerful, transparency is foolish; the difference between honesty and
transparency is scale.

206. Honesty is a micro snapshot of truth, whereas transparency is the macro totality
of it, selective honesty as opposed to full disclosure. People like honesty, they rarely
want full disclosure.

207. If you need to keep absolving someone because they consistently maintain
plausible deniability, you are being played. Punish them or cease association, do not
continue to absolve.

208. It is generally wise to allow people to project onto you the social or political views
they find most appealing.

209. People love power and want to be as close to it as possible without endangering
themselves. Skin in the game separates the wheat from the chaff.

210. Incompetence can serve as an effective cloak of secrecy with which to hide an
agenda. For example, if one were to build a house under a house but wanted nobody to
know the second house existed, theyd attribute the additional building time and costs
incurred by the creation of the hidden house to the labor and bureaucratic
incompetencies of the known house.

211. Everything people do is strategic irrespective of its effectiveness or

deliberateness. Theres always an angle, but it isnt always insidious.

212. Polarization is the precursor to division, and division is a common prerequisite for
control.
213. Be bolder than your enemy, and you paralyses him upon the very nanosecond
you confront him.

214. Simulate your downfall to see who folds and sells you out. Loyalty is gauged in
the face of failure, not success.

215. Unless youre exchanging blows, move slower than your enemy. The confidence
throws them off immensely.

216. If theyre going to disbelieve you, mirror your accuser, and then by act of
disbelieving you, they disbelieve both of you.

217. He who is most cunning, and furthermore, best equipped to execute the
mechanizations of his cunning, will win a hundred wars and a thousand battles.

218. Magnanimity is a projection of soft power, always leave a tip, it makes you look
powerful and buys you favor with those who perform you services.

219. Boldness almost always rewards, when it doesnt, disappear.

220. When you dont have a good answer, ask a question, be sparing with this
however, for abusing it will make you seem disgustingly untrustworthy.

221. When the enemy is too powerful, its more profitable to ally with them than war
with them irrespective of your feelings for them.

222. Treat all unfocalized offers as bait.

223. If one strategizes purely from a position of emotionally driven personal

preference and not pragmatism, one will strategies inadequately.

224. You cant trust a dark triad who isnt dependent on you for a thing, and even then,
the ruthless temporariness of their loyalty is predicated entirely on the degree to which
you are useful.

225. Breaking silence is tactically unsound. Wait for the other person to speak first, or
do not speak at all.

226. Know your enemies and know yourself, but in knowing your enemies, know your
allies, ascertain who is loyal, and ascertain who is mercenary.

227. If you dont want war but the enemy does, youve lost before the battles even
begun.
228. Diplomat is a geopolitical euphemism for intercontinental Machiavellian
negotiator

229. The disparity between what a man says and what a man does are the
reputational affecting aspects he takes into consideration when speaking.

230. Bide your time after being attacked. Dont respond straightaway. Let them think
theyve won, then as soon as they relax, strike.

231. Whoever makes the first move without being baited holds the advantage, they
control the battlefield because the element of surprise shocks and demoralizes the
enemy, striking a critical blow before they can even fortify themselves.

232. The difference between a man who can suspend empathy and a man who has
none is the latter is existentially incapable of virtue.

233. Foreign aid is macro level statecraft philanthropy. Step 1: buy favor. Step 2: get a
good reputation for your generosity and market it as enlightened altruism.

234. Predators can destroy other predators, but the difficulty of such a thing
persuades them to designate targets wholl offer less resistance. Be expensive to
defeat, and few will even dare to declare war.

235. What is left when honor is lost? Strategy. The only way to lose it is to lose your
life, strategy is the essence of life via adaptivity.

236. People only care about what you have, not what it took to get it. As such, if
someones interested in the how, theres a 99% chance they want to copy your blueprint
or sabotage your achievements.

237. If youre afraid to play in the mud, the mud will involuntarily dirty you.

238. Cull the fickle, insolent, and disloyal, for even if it injures you in the short-term, it
will benefit you in the long.

239. Being likeable is a conflict avoidance strategy.

240. When dealing with pedants, jobsworths and fault finders, use subjunctives such
as if, perhaps and maybe, so they cant nail you down to a position. Anything that
can be misconstrued, will be, plausible deniability is thus paramount.

241. Trust is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the less you trust the other party, the less theyll
trust you. The inverse is also true; the more you trust the other party, the likelier theyll
trust you.
242. When people dont like you, they look for flaws in your methods in an attempt to
discredit you. Give them something non life-threatening to chew on.

243. Faced by a lion, most will step back, not forward.

244. Egotists will underestimate you, cowards will overestimate you.

245. Projection: most people posit the opinion they hold of themselves as a notable
exception for generality in counterargument.

246. When you describe a man to himself in accurate yet unflattering detail, you deal
a crippling blow to his psyche.

247. The waiting game is a necessary game, as such, it is strategically optimal to

outwait those who would test your patience.

248. If power is defined as ones ability to impose their will onto the world, then money
is the commodification of power in physical form.

249. The more words you use, the less theyll like what you say.

250. Misdirection: if they say a lot of words without communicating a bottom line,
theyre deceiving you.

251. War is everything. All the time, everywhere, war rages constantly. It has different
forms, intensities, and appearances, but it persists perpetually, eternally.

252. Competition is not war per se, but rather, its predicate. One can compete
indirectly and without maliciousness of intent. War on the other hand is willful violation,
for it is less distant, more immediate, and manifests itself as conflict or sabotage.

253. Frames are a war of propaganda. Do not absorb the other sides frame, have
them absorb yours. Whoever absorbs first, loses. If neither side concedes, stalemate.
Caveat: satire.

254. Intelligent energy allocation is a fundamental principle of effective strategy, for

bereft energy, there is nothing.

255. Pragmatism is king, doubly so when one is suffering.

256. Strong ethics are oft the superficial purview of the elite and the substantive limiter
of the loser.

257. The middle class are confined to methodologically unsound moral codes, for it
ensures theyre neither a threat nor a factor in the game of power.
258. The poorest and the richest tend to be the least moral, for the poor have dire
need, whereas the rich possess excess power; desperation and domination alike lend
themselves to immorality.

259. The immoral rich are unvirtuous on a greater scale than the immoral poor, for
they have greater means with which to impose their ethics. The immoral poor in turn
justify their immorality based on the actions of the immoral rich, people theyd likely
mimic given the same resources.

260. For the rich its easy to be moral because they can afford to be, for the poor, its
easy to be moral because theres little power to tempt them.

261. The method necessary to win and its associated reputation are entirely distinct
entities. Method is effectiveness, reputation is perception.

262. If you want to sell someone, lie to them. If you want to help them, hit them with
the truth. A spoonful of humor helps the medicine go down.

263. Most are focused on how being bound to their word can limit their freedoms by
putting them in a bind, the reversal however is that by speaking truthfully and keeping
your word when no one else does, your credibility grows immeasurably. Irrespective of
their aesthetic contradictions, both are simultaneously true. These are not mutually
exclusive conditions.

264. If you discover someones given you misinformation, ascertain the probability this
was done so with ill intent; theres a good chance youre at war.

265. To be successful is, effectively, to paint a bullseye on ones back; to be famous is

to intensify the geometric volume of said bullseye.

266. Many notable people have acquired demons and skeletons in their pursuit to the
top. Enemies instinctively expect this, hence the propensity to dig dirt and smear the
noteworthy.

267. People judge themselves less harshly than they judge you, to them, what is not
permissible for you is so for them.

268. Everyone judges you on your actions, but not everyone understands why you did
what you did. Fewer care why.

269. Bread, circuses and a pseudo-educated population ferment an apathy that

makes for easy governance.

270. Someone is always responsible for failure, but the person truly at fault is not
always disposable. This is why the fall man was invented. He who is unuseful will be
allocated the blame for the mistakes of he who is.
271. When people analyze literature and interpret, they believe their deductions to be
uniquely theirs, rather than seeds planted by the writer.

272. Dont avoid war, prepare for it.

273. Inferiors think youre equal when you validate their nonsense with a response.
Corollary: the higher you ascend, the more proficient one need be at ignoring trite.

274. When confused, the inverse of the overt statements appearance is often where
youll find truth.

275. When we see what we want to see instead of what is, we fool ourselves. All the
other person need do is study our desires, and present themselves as such. They show
us what we want to see, and we are all too happy to ignore anything extraneous. For
this reason, it is clear: the person best suited to deceive you is you.

276. To expose subversive elements, appear reactive, then dont react when a shot is
fired in the grand confidence you will respond upstart morale shatterer.

277. Arguments are more about spin than they are material facts. It is not the best
logician that wins, its the best spin artist.

278. Be mindful about revealing how you would intend to react in threatening
hypothetical scenarios, for if such a reaction is deemed profitable, you will inadvertently
bring about its undesirable cause.

279. The resentful weak will clutch at any avenue for revenge no matter how trivial
and leverage it to its absolute utmost.

280. Politics is war by psychological means, media but its delivery system.

281. Typical enemies are visible, they promote you by being vocal in their hatred of
you. Insidious enemies invisibly undermine you by recruiting someone to smear you, or
by endorsing your visible enemies. The insidious enemy does not market for you,
sometimes he even poses as a friend. Be mindful of him, for he is the Trojan horse.

282. You detect Trojans based on what they dont do rather than what they do. Even
when hidden, enemies are usually close. Apply a probability heuristic to your
surroundings to identify potential Trojans.

283. He who is seen is only more powerful than he who isnt, when being seen yields
profit and being not doesnt.
284. Sow seeds of doubt invisibly to create division among others, whilst appearing
warm to all involved. This will allow you to consolidate power in the Popularity Olympics
that constitutes human relations.

285. Business or war, targeting works the same, you target people with influence over
others, not influences. Destroy a leader, destroy his men. Win a leader, win them.

286. Everything is a tactic or a play or a move, if you cant see this, its because youre
undiscerning, not because it isnt there.

287. Use the word feel more when talking with feelers, use the word think more
when talking with thinkers. This sounds simple when stated, but few realize just how
much it affects their credibility.

288. Winners dont play fair, they hide their edge and maintain the illusion of fairness.

289. The more powerful a person becomes, the more likely they are to distance
themselves from previous allies.

290. Be unpredictable, appear weak when strong, or strong when weak, alternatively,
oscillate between the two to appear an unpredictable enigma.