I know, I know. A gross over-generalisation which I conceded in the original comment. But clicking around on his blog, I found a quote from his interview by Tuc

I know, I know. A gross over-generalisation which I conceded in the original comment. But clicking around on his blog, I found a quote from his interview by Tucker Max which shows that his inspiration was definitely Machiavelli. "I pitched to him an idea about the timelessness of Machiavelli which ended up turning into the 48 Laws of Power." http://www.powerseductionandwar.com/archives/the_robert_gree.phtml http://www.powerseductionandwar.com/archives/the_robert_gree...