The first thing in social life that you have to take care of is your personality, then you have got to become manipulative, next you have to understand why to be manipulative.

Within society considering other people’s motivations is of paramount importance to the individual, in that they will affect him in every way he did not even think possible.

Pushing your nose into someone else’s business is always a rather odorous affair, but that’s not to say you might not enjoy doing it.

What you should ask of some person getting in your way is: “Why is this person getting in my way?” And if you can work that out in time to do something appropriate about it you’ll be a clever fellow indeed.

Personal dislike is the immediate reaction used in humanity’s essentially “primate culture”, to ward off the “evil eye” of those individuals who would disrupt the harmony of life-style within the group.

Having a real, sharply defined truth of life revealed to us does not necessarily make us any wiser, however, it does make us more curious.

In each other’s company, the self-possessed enjoy themselves most freely when they relate most easily to each other’s prejudices.

Those people who have made some mistake socially (and so slink-off to “lick their wounds”) surely then, have also made a mental note to correct it in some way as well.

If, for what you are, you are consistently and persistently attacked, then you must also find indirect ways of fighting back.

Just because an action is forthright, well thought out and well executed, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a right and proper thing to do, but you’re probably going in the right direction.

Effort produces possibilities of advancement not envisaged by other, less active courses of action. This merely seems harder to pursue than failing.

Dedication is what you definitely need, but what do you actually need it for?

Some people do quite well for themselves out of the perceived environment, and thus they must be quite good at doing so. Others do not manage quite so well.

Next to physical violence, disapproval is the most powerful form of attack used against the exposed individual, pity is the next one down, while sympathy is lower still and hits him below the belt—but it takes a lot of practice to perfect.

It is mostly the dull, crass, boorish things in life that tend to single men out for his use as the precise tools of his own intimate destruction; yet it will be these same mundane, ordinary, commonplace matters that the most aware of men routinely single out and pay attention to most diligently.

In an act of judgement the obvious observation is one of the perspective of the observer, and thus is the immediate failing of the opinionated mentality.

The best way to cajole someone into doing something not really in his best interests is to make the apparent seem real by agreeing with his prejudices.

“The funniest thing” is a truth that has been discovered hidden away in front of your eyes within a confounded lie, and yet beforehand you did not even notice its existence: that is “the funniest thing.”

In addition to being uncertain we can also suspect the truth and purposely neglect to confirm it, as knowing that truth for certain makes of our lives an unbearable certainty.

Playing the fool would also make you occasionally wonder what’s going on, but essentially the answer still eludes you.

In “ugly situations” you can do some “ugly things”, especially when “not meaning to.”

In many ways, you can be a very clever man while being clever enough; which can be adequate most of the time, but no more.