The 48 Laws Of Power

142
j

LAW 19

whohadbeen

insolent,

during

his

years

of

poverty.

Leastofalldidhefor»

get

histreatmentatthehandsoftherulerof

Cheng.

Athisfirst

opportunity

heassembledavast

army

andmarchedon

Chang,takingeight

cities,

de~

straying

the

kingdom,

and

sending

the

rulerintoanexileofhisown.

Interpretation

Youcanneverbesurewho

you

are

dealing

with.Amanwhoisoflittleim-

portance

andmeans

today

canbea

person

of

power

tomorrow.We

forget

a

lot

in

our

lives,

butwe

rarelyforget

an

insult.

How

was

therulerof

Cheng

toknow

that

Prince

Ch’ung-erh

was

an

ambitious,

calculating,cunningtype,

a

serpent

with

alongmemory?

There

was

really

no

way

forhimto

know,

youmay

say-—but

sincetherewasno

way,

itwouldhavebeenbetternotto

tempt

the

fates

by

finding

out.There

is

nothing

tobe

gainedbyinsulting

a

personunnecessarily

Swallowthe

impulse

to

offend,

evenif

the

other

person

seemsweak.Thesatisfactionis

meagercompared

tothe

danger

that

someday

beorshewillbeina

posi

tiontohurt

you.

Transgresskm

IV

The

year

of 1920 hadbeena

particularly

badoneforAmericanartdealers.

Bigbuyers«-«the

robber-baron

generation

ofthe

previouscentury-~were

getting

toan

age

where

they

were

dying

offlike

flies,

andnonewmillion»

aireshad

emerged

totaketheir

place.Things

weresobadthatanumberof

the

major

dealersdecided

to

pool

their

resources,

an

unheard-of

event,

sinceartdealers

usuallygetalong

likecatsand

dogs.

Joseph

Duveen,

artdealertotherichest

tycoons

of

America,

wassuf-

fering

morethantheothersthat

year,

sohedecidedto

goalong

withthis

alliance.The

group

nowconsistedofthefive

biggest

dealersinthe

country.

Looking

aroundforanew

client,

they

decidedthattheirlastbest

hope

was

Henry

Ford,

thenthewealthiestman

in

America.Fordhad

yet

toventure

intotheart

market,

andhe

was

such

a

bigtarget

thatitmadesenseforthem

towork

together.

Thedealersdecidedtoassemblea

list,

“The 100 Greatest

Paintings

in

theWorld”

(all

ofwhich

theyhappened

to

have

in

stock),

and

to

offer

the

lotofthemtoFord.Withone

purchase

he

could

make

himselftheworld’s

greatest

collector.Theconsortiumworkedforweeksto

produce

a

magnifi-

cent

object:

athree-volumesetofbooks

containing

beautiful

reproductions

ofthe

paintings,

aswellas

scholarly

texts

accompanying

each

picture.

Next

they

madea

personal

visittoFordathishomein

Dearborn,

Michigan.

There

they

were

surprisedby

the

simplicity

ofhishouse:Mr.Fordwasob‘

viously

an

extremely

unaffectedman.

Fordreceivedtheminhis

study.

Looking

through

the

book,

heex-

pressed

astonishmentand

delight.

Theexciteddealers

beganimagining

the

millions

of

dollarsthatwould

shortly

flowintotheircoflers.

Finally,

how—

ever,

Fordlooked

up

fromthebook

and

said,“Gentlemen,

beautifulbooks

like

these,

withbeautifulcolored

pictures

like

these,

mustcostanawful

lot!”“ButMr.Ford!”exclaimed

Duveen,

“wedon’t

expectyou

to

buy

these