48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws of Power

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

The 48 laws of power enumerate the things and guidelines that an individual who’s in power should follow. These laws contained important factors which can affect an individual. It has been said that once these laws have been spontaneously followed an individual will attain success, and thus the opposite, once it was violated an individual may experience failures or worse it may cause its downfall.

Some of these laws contained strategies on how to win over people. Such laws are law number 9, 32 and 43. Law number 9 which ironically stated that “win through your actions, never through argument.” This law explained the power of actions over words. Arguments can only cause misunderstanding. Most of the people were impressed on someone’s ideas through its words yet as time goes by they will look for direct actions for those words. From this law it can be said that an individual should save their time in saying things and rather spend their time in performing it. Law number 32 stated that “play to people’s fantasies”, it has been said that people doesn’t only need changes such as “world peace” and the like, but they also had something in mind such as wealth and fame which an individual should also look at. Law number 43 stated that “work on the hearts and minds of others” which explained that an individual should also focus on the primary emotion of the people such as love, hate, anger and others. It can be said that to maintain power an individual should not focused his/her attention in his/her own needs, thus they should give more emphasized to the needs of the people.

There are also laws which thought some line of attack to opponent and against the offender; such laws are law number 15, 21, 36, 39 and 44. These laws stated on how to win over an enemy without him/her noticing it. As law 36 stated, “disdain things you...