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    “You must avoid the common mistake of making judgments based on your initial impressions of people.  Such impressions can sometimes tell you something, but more often they are misleading.  There are several reasons for this.  In our initial encounter you tend to be nervous, less open, and more inward.  You are not really paying attention.  Furthermore, people have trained themselves to appear a certain way; they have a persona they use in public that acts like a second skin to protect them.  Unless you are incredibly perceptive, you will tend to mistake the mask for the reality.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

      “People will say all kinds of things about their motives and intentions; they are used to dressing things up with words.  Their actions, however, say much more about their character, about what is going on underneath the surface.  If they present a harmless front but have acted aggressively on several occasions, give the knowledge of that aggression much greater weight than the surface they present.  In a similar vein, you should take special note of how people respond to stressful situations—often the mask they wear in public falls off in the heat of the moment.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

        “Pay less attention to the words that people say and greater attention to their tone of voice, the look in their eye, their body language—all signals that might reveal a nervousness or excitement that is not expressed verbally.  If you can get people to become emotional, they will reveal a lot more.  Cutting off your interior monologue and paying deep attention, you will pick up cues from them that will register with you as feelings or sensations.  Trust these sensations—they are telling you something that you will often tend to ignore because it is not easy to verbalize.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

          “You must allow everyone the right to exist in accordance with the character he has, whatever it turns out to be: and all you should strive to do is to make use of this character in such a way as its kind of nature permits, rather than to hope for any alteration in it, or to condemn it offhand for what it is.  This is the true sense of the maxim—Live and let live… To become indignant at [people’s] conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path.  And with many people the wisest thing you can do, is to resolve to make use of those whom you cannot alter.” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, via Mastery

            “Without suffering and doubts, the mind will come to rest on clichés and stay there, until the spirit dies as well.  You must continually start over and challenge yourself.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

              “There are two kinds of failure.  The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time.  This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you.  The second kind comes from a bold venturesome spirit.  If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn.  Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.  In fact, it is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt.  You will fail to question the element of luck, making you think that you have the golden touch.  When you do inevitably fail, it will confuse and demoralize you past the point of learning. You have everything to gain.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

                “The only real impediment to [mastering a skill] is yourself and your emotions—boredom, panic, frustration, insecurity.  You cannot suppress such emotions—they are normal to the process and are experienced by everyone, including Masters.  What you can do is have faith in the process.  The boredom will go away once you enter the cycle.  The panic disappears after repeated exposure.  The frustration is a sign of progress—a signal that your mind is processing complexity and requires more practice.  The insecurities will transform into their opposites when you gain mastery.  Trusting this will all happen, you will allow the natural learning process to move forward, and everything else will fall into place.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery