Robert Greene Quotes

Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.

Without enemies you will not know how or where to maneuver, and you will lose a sense of your limits, of how far you can go.

What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price—there is no cutting corners with excellence.

Work every day on improving those skills that mesh with your unique spirit and purpose

What you really want to recapture from your childhood is your mind.

Learn to play with your image, never taking it too seriously. The key is to infuse your play with the conviction and feeling of a child, making it seem natural. The more absorbed you seem in your own joy-filled world, the more seductive you become.

If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them.

They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch.

Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

To become indignant at [people’s] conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path.

Never take it for granted that your past successes will continue in the future.

Actually, your past successes are your biggest obstacle: every battle, every war, is different, and you cannot assume that what worked before will work today.

In life you must be a warrior, and war requires realism.

While others may find beauty in endless dreams, warriors find it in reality, in awareness of limits, in making the most of what they have.

We humans have discussed and analyzed almost every conceivable phenomenon in the known Universe. But the phenomenon that we rarely discuss, let alone acknowledge, is the most essential, startling, and strangest one of all—that we are alive right now, moving through a world just as it is.

Immersing yourself in details will combat the generalizing tendencies of the brain and bring you closer to reality.

Understand: we can never really experience what other people are experiencing. We always remain on the outside looking in, and this is the cause of so many misunderstandings and conflicts.

You have to know how other people think before you craft the right kind of response.

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