This is a list of The 48 Laws of Power, and the bullet points provide a quick explanation.

👉🏼 For the complete book guide, see the main 48 Laws of Power guide.

48 Laws List

Law 1: Never Outshine the Master

• Do not showcase your superior talents, or it will make those above you dislike you

Law 2:  Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends. Use Your Enemies

• Friends will envy and resent you, turn into frenemies, and plot against you. Turn your enemies into allies instead

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions

• Never say what you’re really up to

Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary

• Powerful people impress by talking less

Law 5: Protect Your Reputation at All Costs

• Reputation is the cornerstone of power. If you want to destroy someone, attack their reputation

Law 6: Court Attention at All Costs

• Stand out from the crowd

Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work For You, But Take the Credit

• Do what most bosses do: use your team, but present the results as your achievements

Law 8: Make People Come to You

• Avoid chasing people, but make others approach you and ask you for favors

Law 9: Win Through Actions, Never Through Argument

• Talk is cheap, actions always speak louder

Law 10: Don’t Get Infected by Misery and Misfortune

• Avoid the losers and complainers, associate with the happy and the winners

Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You

• Make yourself indispensable

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty & Generosity to Disarm Your Victim

• One act of honesty will cover a dozen dishonest ones
• First, make them trust you, and then you deceive them big

Law 13: Get Help by Appealing to Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy

•  If you need help, don’t remind people of the past good you’ve done for them. Instead, find what’s in it for them today

Law 14: Pose As a Friend Work As a Spy

• Gather intelligence and learn people’s secrets by getting close to them

Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally

• Don’t wound. Kill

Law 16: Raise your Value Through Absence and Scarcity

• Don’t be too present. Create value through scarcity and absence

Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability

• Predictability makes you an easy target. Make your moves more random become more unpredictable

Law 18: Don’t Isolate Yourself Behind a Fortress

• Isolation is dangerous and cuts you off from information: mingle with the people, instead

Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing with

• Pick good targets, and don’t cross the wrong people

Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone

• Maintain your Independence as long as possible

Law 21: Play A Sucker to Catch a Sucker: Seem Dumber Than Your Mark

• Seem dumber than you really are and your opponent will lower his guard

Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic

• Don’t fight until the bitter end, but surrender and regroup

Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces

• Intensity and deep work yield better results

Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier

• Learn to play politics

Law 25: Re-Create Yourself

• Be the master of your own identity, don’t let others define you

Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean

• Use others to do illegal and immoral deeds while you look above reproach

Law 27: Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following

•  Create a cult-like following where you are the cult-master

Law 28: Enter Action With Boldness

• Timidity is weak. Do it boldly and convinced, or don’t do it at all

Law 29: Plan All The Way to The End

• Make your luck by drafting proper and accurate plans that begin from the most important part: the end goal

Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless

• You look immensely competent and powerful when you achieve your goals without breaking a sweat

Law 31: Control the Options

• Make people feel like they had a choice, but truly only give choices that see you as the winner

Law 32: Play to People’s Fantasies

• Give people what they want to hear, not the truth

Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew

• Find your opponent’s weaknesses, insecurities, and hot buttons

Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion – Act Like a King to Be Treated Like One

• Act like the person you want to become

Law 35: Master the Art of Timing

• Never seem in a hurry, but look calm and collected, like you always have things under control

Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have: Ignoring Them is the Best Revenge

• If you can’t have something, pretend it doesn’t even register in your brain. Pretend it doesn’t exist

Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles

• Dazzle people with big shows that cover the harsher reality that you don’t want them to see

Law 38: Think As You Like, But Behave Like Others

• When you go against the grain in your communication, you feel superior. People will resent you. Blend in instead

Law 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish

• Make your enemies angry and emotional

Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch

• Freebies come with strings attached. Instead of taking freebies, offer them: generosity is a sign and magnet for power

Law 41: Avoid Stepping Into a Great Man’s Shoes

• Don’t follow great leaders in their footsteps, or you look like a smaller hanger-on. Carve your own path instead

Law 42: Strike the Shepherd to Scatter the Sheep

Deal with the problem at its source. Strike the source of the trouble, the leader, or the main instigator

Law 43: Work on The Hearts and Minds of Others

• Influence beats dominance. Direct people gracefully, master the art of gentle influence
• Appeal to hearts (emotions) first and foremost. Then deal with the mind (rationality)

Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect

• Copy what they do: it’s a great technique to stir water and make them angry and emotionally unhinged

Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, But Never Reform Too Much at Once

• Change is traumatic, and people will resist it: make your changes slow and gentle

Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect

• Make the average mass feel closer to you with strategic vulnerability

Law 47: Do Not Go Past The Mark You Aimed For. In Victory, Know When to Stop

• Don’t push too far, stop when you achieve your goal

Law 48: Assume Formlessness

• Everything changes. What worked today won’t necessarily work tomorrow. And you must adapt to thrive

Dig Deeper (Advanced Laws)

Here are the 48 Laws of Power in pictorial format:

Also, check out:

• What The 48 Laws Get Wrong, and how to fix them
• Modern 48 Laws of Power: with modern examples
• Laws of Top-0.1%: the truly advanced rules

As well as:

• Manipulation: a primer on manipulation techniques and games people play
• Dark Psychology: a primer on the dark side of influence and psychology
• Machiavellianism: become more Machiavellian, and you won’t even need any list anymore