Secrecy Quotes

• Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.

  Bill Moyers

  Dream, Freedom, Tyrants

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• Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.

  Sophocles

  Time, Secret, All Things

  "Hipponous". Play by Sophocles, Fragment 280,

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• Privacy is something that we maintain for the good of ourselves and others. Secrecy we keep to separate ourselves from others, even those we love.

  Mary Alice Monroe

  Privacy, Those We Love

  Mary Alice Monroe (2012). “The Beach House”, p.133, Harlequin

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• To whom you betray your secret you sell your liberty.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Secret, Liberty, Betray

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• While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.

  Sissela Bok

  Hype, Deception, Deceiving

  Sissela Bok (2011). “Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation”, p.7, Vintage

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• Power corrupts, and there is nothing more corrupting than power exercised in secret.

  Daniel Schorr

  Secret, Power Corrupts

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• While privacy strengthens all our bonds, secrecy weakens and damages connection. Lerner points out that we do not usually "know the emotional costs of keeping a secret" until the truth is disclosed. Usually, secrecy involves lying. And lying is always the setting for potential betrayal and violation of trust.

  Bell Hooks

  Betrayal, Lying, Emotional

  5 Copy quote

• Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Elements, Mysterious, Mystery

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  The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

  Patrick Henry

  Fake People, Freedom, 4th Of July

  "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: Volume 3". Book by Jonathan Elliot, 1836.

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• The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness.

  Edward Teller

  Freedom, Democracy, Weapons

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• The mind of a wise man is the safest custody of secrets; cheerfulness is the key to friendship; patience and forbearance will conceal many defects.

  Bill Vaughan

  Wise, Character, Men

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• The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

  John F. Kennedy

  Nwo, People, Political

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Believe, Mean, Government

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• To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wisdom, Keeping Secrets, Kept Secrets

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• A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

  John F. Kennedy

  Christian, Peace, War

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.163, Best Books on

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• Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

  Samuel Johnson

  Evil, Secret, Vices

  Samuel Johnson (1948). “The wisdom of Dr. Johnson: being comments on life and moral precepts chosen from his writings”

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• Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Government, Political, Politics

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• The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.

  John F. Kennedy

  Long Ago, People, Secret

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Purpose, Persuasion

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• The secret known to two is no longer a secret.

  Ninon de L'Enclos

  Two, Secret, Known

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• Being connected to the Internet means being vulnerable to coordinated actions that can knock down walls of secrecy and shatter mechanisms of control.

  Jamais Cascio

  Wall, Mean, Action

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• When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Secret, Faults

  "Characters", V, 1688.

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• The very word Secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society.

  John F. Kennedy

  Nwo, Conspiracy, Secret Society

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe The bosom of a friend will hold a secret Mine own could not contain.

  Philip Massinger

  Believe, Play, Secret

  Philip Massinger (1779). “The Dramatick Works of Philip Massinger...”, p.242

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  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

  James Madison

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

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