Secrecy Quotes - Page 13

• To the man who cherishes a secret in his breast, there is a still greater secret unexplored. Our most indifferent acts may be a matter for secrecy, but whatever we do with the utmost truthfulness and integrity, by virtue of its pureness, must be transparent as light.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Light

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.222, Xist Publishing

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• Some men are tempted to violate secrecy from the uneasiness secrecy gives them, and others, merely to impress you with the extent of their confidence.

  Norm MacDonald

  Men, Giving, Impress

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• Of course, corporations and governments have a right to something for their money. They pay the wages. But they don't have the ethical right to literally purchase the copyright of a citizen's potential contribution to society. In a democracy they should not have the legal right to silence the quasi-totality of the functioning élite in order to satisfy a managerial taste for control and secrecy.

  John Ralston Saul

  Order, Government, Silence

  "On Equilibrium". Book by John Ralston Saul, 2001.

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• There's nothing wrong with sexual feelings in themselves, so long as they are straightforward and not sneaking or sly. The right sort of sex stimulus is invaluable to human daily life. Without it the world grows grey.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Sex, Long, Feelings

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2004). “D. H. Lawrence: Late Essays and Articles”, p.240, Cambridge University Press

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• Without secrecy there would be no pornography. But secrecy and modesty are two utterly different things.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Two, Would Be, Different

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2004). “D. H. Lawrence: Late Essays and Articles”, p.243, Cambridge University Press

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• The whole question of pornography seems to me a question of secrecy. Without secrecy there would be no pornography. But secrecy and modesty are two utterly different things. Secrecy has always an element of fear in it, amounting very often to hate. Modesty is gentle and reserved. Today, modesty is thrown to the winds, even in the presence of the grey guardians. But secrecy is hugged, being a vice in itself. And the attitude of the grey ones is: Dear young ladies, you may abandon all modesty, so long as you hug your dirty little secret.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Attitude, Hate, Dirty

  D. H. Lawrence (1966). “Selected Poems of D.h. Lawrence”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• God preserve us! If men knew what is done in secret, no one would be free from the interference of others.

  Saadi

  Men, Secret, Would Be

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.168, Innovations and Information

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• It is safer to be silent than to reveal one's secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it.

  Saadi

  Secret, Silent

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.149, Innovations and Information

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• The wise man tells not what he knows. It is not prudent to sport with one's head by revealing the king's secrets.

  Saadi

  Wise, Sports, Kings

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.97, Innovations and Information

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• Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

  William Saroyan

  Heart, Shining, Sorrow

  Eugene O'Neill, Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Coe Howard, DuBose Heyward, Elmer Rice (1988). “Famous American plays of the 1920s and the 1930s”

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• The White House is the leakiest place I've ever been in. (On special measures to ensure secrecy of plans to bomb Libya)

  Ronald Reagan

  White, House, Special

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• Nonviolence abhors fear and therefore, secrecy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Nonviolence

  Mahatma Gandhi, Judith M. Brown (2008). “The Essential Writings”, p.173, Oxford University Press

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• Let it be your business every day, in the secrecy of the inner chamber, to meet the holy God. You will be repaid for the trouble it may cost you. The reward will be sure and rich.

  Andy Murray

  Prayer, Cost, May

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• Much of the shadow banking sector, a major contributor to the economic crisis, was also only possible because of taxhaven secrecy.

  Vince Cable

  Shadow, Banking, Economic

  "The offensive secrecy of tax havens" by Vincent Cable, www.theguardian.com. September 23, 2009.

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• There is no secrecy comparable to celerity.

  Francis Bacon

  Speed

  Francis Bacon (1858). “Works of Francis Bacon: 6”, p.428

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• All Cabinet Ministers and other senior ministers are still sworn in as Privy Counsellors for life. The oath (which dates back to the thirteenth-century and has been described as Britain's oldest secrecy provision) commits them to keep all advice to the monarch secret.

  Clive Ponting

  Senior, Advice, Secret

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• Under the Bush administration, openness and accountability have been replaced by secrecy and evasion of responsibility. They abuse their power, conceal their actions from the American people, and refuse to hold officials accountable.

  Edward Kennedy

  Responsibility, People, Accountability

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• An attitudinal sea change. I think that's the hardest one to fix. Presidential directives, bills, provisions can all be rescinded, repealed, amended, but attitudes linger. The hardest thing is going to be to try to reverse an attitude, a bunker mentality that equates secrecy with either security or heightened efficiency and that regards transparency as an invitation to mischief and trespass. This default position of operating in the shadows is going to be somewhat appealing to whomever inherits office.

  Ted Gup

  Attitude, Thinking, Sea

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Secrecy doesn't attach to particular parties; it attaches to power. All of the bull work is in place for whomever succeeds. That's my concern.

  Ted Gup

  Party, Succeed, Bulls

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• One of the principal factors fueling the proliferation of the abuse of secrecy and sensitive but unclassifieds is the administration's adherence to the unitary executive principal. This administration more than any of its predecessors believes that it is its responsibility to collect power onto itself in the executive office when it comes to the conduct of war, foreign policy, the management of agencies and departments, regulations, etc.

  Ted Gup

  War, Believe, Responsibility

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• The third factor is the natural predisposition of bureaucracies, both governmental and private, to exploit secrecy to whatever degree they are licensed to do so, and in this administration they're given virtually carte blanche.

  Ted Gup

  Administration, Degrees, Natural

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• And fourthly there is a major shift in public opinion and attitude to accommodate to the post-9/11 mentality and the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy. I think the public has simply become increasingly accustomed to being turned away from vital information and is protesting less and less. You have some squeaky wheels out there, but I don't think they're representative of the population at large.

  Ted Gup

  Attitude, Thinking, Public Opinion

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• There's always been something illicit about the way I work. I'm photographing people I don't know, when nobody else is home - there's a necessary degree of secrecy.

  Katy Grannan

  Home, People, Degrees

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• There is secrecy and betrayal but that's more part and parcel of the kind of anguish that the people go through. And maybe that's modes of survival, rather than modes of consciousness.

  Chang-Rae Lee

  Betrayal, People, Survival

  Source: therumpus.net

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• We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.

  Franz Kafka

  Justice, Age, Able

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