“Power is the ability to occupy and influence people’s imagination.”

—1.9


“When you think about it, great leadership is about creating the feeling of nostalgia. You want people to crave something they cannot fully get. Be it a goal, a mission, a lifestyle, a noble ideal. Moreover, you want your presence to feel like home.”

—1.11


“Human nature is not a problem for you to solve.”

—1.27

“The masses use language to explain and self-justify. The ruling class uses language to influence perception.”

—2.5


“You could say that the entire responsibility of the ruling class is to continuously produce in the masses the feeling of being seen and heard… What matters is not the surface expression—what matters is how well we can bring deeper pain and need to the surface. By performing this act, we become authentic.”

—2.8


“Summarizing reality provides you the opportunity to influence perception while appearing impartial. Explaining reality makes you appear defensive and weak.”

—2.10


“We induce psychosis in the masses, then we rescue them from going insane. Then we start the cycle all over again. We will never get tired of doing this. We are nothing if not persistent. Our goal was never to help people manifest their dreams. Our goal was never to help people reach their full potential, whatever that even means. Our goal, from the start, was to stoke envy and fear. When you keep empathizing with other people without solving their problems, what do you think is going to happen?”

—2.17

“If the ruling class had an essential command, it would be to replace all meaning with ideology.”

—3.6


“Ideology is exhausting by design. Thought leadership, “new” theories about happiness and success, the endless need for therapy, and political campaigns promising to change everything without changing anything—these are just some of the products we sell under the brand of ideology.”

—3.10


“So you see, people in power have no ideology. We may claim to believe this or that, and we certainly do a good job of making people feel that we have genuine convictions, but we don’t really believe in anything.”

—3.14


“All ideologies teach their followers a kind of performative humility with which to understand suffering in their lives.”

—3.16

“We pay attention to people who are slightly unpredictable, who will say and do things that make life seem more exciting. This is what we mean by charisma. The ruling class rules because we have your attention.”

—4.1


“While we’re trained to articulate a reflexive aversion to acts of villainy, one could say the very idea of charisma is rooted in the expression of villainy.”

—4.5


“What’s more, you learn to remove yourself from the situation and become a neutral observer to your own actions. This is what we really mean when we talk about the process of “becoming.” It’s all about separating yourself from your own actions so you can study them over and over again. The more you practice, the more persuasive you become—to others and to yourself.”

—4.10

“Once you can make a living talking about success rather than actively achieving it, you have reached the pinnacle of success.”

—5.1


“Contrary to conventional wisdom, you should never focus on how people feel toward you. Instead, focus on understanding how people feel about themselves.”

—5.5


“The will to power does not simply expand—its prime directive is to protect the sovereignty of the individual. You will be amazed at how far people will go to protect their own ego. Success is the validation of ego, nothing else.”

—5.7

“Once we mythologize the journey, all sorts of hardships can be justified. This is why our leaders impress upon young people the importance of “hard work.” At first, hard work feels pedantic and painful. Over time, reinforced by competition, we begin to mythologize hard work to mean adventure. How else can the human mind cope with meaningless toil? We’re afraid of asking too many questions because the real answer will never satisfy our need for meaning. It may well be better to live inside a pervasive but hopeful fear than to find out that nothing matters in the end.”

—6.5


“The more unattainable a goal is, the more conflicts will be created. The more conflicts there are, the more people will compete against each other rather than disputing the goal. When people compete against each other, they find new reasons to be unhappy about themselves. Unhappiness leads to more work, and more work restores credibility to ruling power.”

—6.8


“It is our relationship to pain that allows us to understand our place in the world.”

—6.17

“The illusion of control reduces rational actors into beasts of burden.”

—7.2


“When people feel a sense of autonomy, the world becomes easier to understand. I act, therefore I am.”

—7.8


“When we seek refuge in being busy, we become happy slaves.”

—7.11