Secrecy Quotes - Page 4

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

  Ninon de L'Enclos

  Two, Secret, Known

  12 Copy quote

• O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

  Sun Tzu

  Art, Fate, Hands

  The Art of War (6th century b.c.).

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.

  Edward Teller

  Addiction, Accepted

  15 Copy quote

• There is a secret drawer in every woman's heart.

  Victor Hugo

  Heart, Secret, Drawers

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  15 Copy quote

• He that discovers himself, till he hath made himself master of his desires, lays himself open to his own ruin, and makes himself prisoner to his own tongue.

  Francis Quarles

  Desire, Tongue, Ruins

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.5

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Jeremy Bentham

  Government, Political, Politics

  22 Copy quote

• Confidentiality refers to the boundaries surrounding shared secrets and to the process of guarding these boundaries. While confidentiality protects much that is not in fact secret, personal secrets lie at its core. The innermost, the vulnerable, often the shameful: these aspects of self-disclosure help explain why one name for professional confidentiality has been "the professional secret." Such secrecy is sometimes mistakenly confused with privacy; yet it can concern many matters in no way private, but that someone wishes to keep from the knowledge of third parties.

  Sissela Bok

  Confused, Lying, Party

  Sissela Bok (2011). “Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation”, p.119, Vintage

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Generally our confidences move downward rather than upward; in our secret affairs, we employ our inferiors much more than our bettors.

  Honore de Balzac

  Moving, Secret, Affair

  7 Copy quote

• People addicted to secrecy are so without knowing why; they are not so for cause, but for secrecy's sake.

  William Hazlitt

  Knowing, People, Sake

  8 Copy quote

• When I am in danger of bursting, I will go and whisper among the reeds.

  Jonathan Swift

  Reeds, Danger, Bursting

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.1516, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In love we are not only liable to betray ourselves, but also the secrets of others.

  Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

  Secret, Liable, Betray

  7 Copy quote

• Secrets with girls, like guns with boys, are never valued till they make a noise.

  George Crabbe

  Girl, Gun, Boys

  'Tales of the Hall' (1819) 'The Maid's Story' l. 84

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Secrecy is for the happy,--misery, hopeless misery, needs no veil; under a thousand suns it dares act openly.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Needs, Veils, Sun

  7 Copy quote

• The rules that I shall propose concerning secrecy, and from which I think it not safe to deviate without long and exact deliberation, are, never to solicit the knowledge of a secret,--not willingly, nor without many limitations, to accept such confidence when it is offered; when a secret is once admitted, to consider the trust as of a very high nature, important as society and sacred as truth, and therefore not to be violated for any incidental convenience, or slight appearance of contrary fitness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Thinking, Long, Secret

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.87

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• From secrecy and deception in high places; come home, America. From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation; come home, America. From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism; from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor; from the prejudice based on race and sex; from the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of the neglected sick - come home, America.

  George McGovern

  Sex, Military, War

  George McGovern (2004). “The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition”, p.166, Simon and Schuster

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• In nature's infinite book of secrecy
  A little I can read.

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Nature, Book

  1606 Soothsayer. Antony and Cleopatra, act1, sc.2, l.9-10.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• A woman only obliges a man to secrecy, that she may have the pleasure of telling herself.

  William Congreve

  Men, May, Pleasure

  Colley Cibber, Sir Richard Steele, George Farquhar, sir John Vanbrugh, William Congreve (1765). “THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN EIGHT VOLUMES: CONTAINING The Most Valuable PLAYS Which Have Been Acted on the LONDON STAGE.. INCONSTANT. By Mr. Farzuhar ; LOVE FOR LOVE. By Mr. Congreve ; LOVE MAKES A MAN. By C. Cibber, Esq. ; LYING LOVER. By Sir Rich. Steele ; PROVOKED WIFE. By Sir John Vanbrugh. VOL. V.”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you can't do any housecleaning because everything that goes on is a damned secret, then we're on our way to something the Founding Fathers didn't have in mind. Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

  Harry S. Truman

  Father, Government, Secret

  14 Copy quote

• Power expands through the distribution of secrecy.

  John le Carre

  Power, Distribution

  Interviewed with Pip Ayers, Daily Mail's Live Magazine, July 10, 2011.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mysteries are due to secrecy.

  Francis Bacon

  Mystery, Dues

  Francis Bacon (1838). “The Works of Lord Bacon: With an Introductory Essay”, p.265

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Excessive administration secrecy... feeds conspiracy theories and reduces the public's confidence in government.

  John McCain

  Government, Administration, Conspiracy

  4 Copy quote