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Secrecy Quotes

Browse 431 quotes about Secrecy.

Secrecy Quotes

“Secrecy is the original sin. The fig leaf in the Garden of Eden. The basic crime against love.”

Sin Crime Garden Originals Leafs Secrecy Eden Original Sin Garden Of Eden Figs Against Love

Book:Neuropolitique

Source: Neuropolitique

“The secrecy of Masonry is an honorable secrecy; any good man may ask for her secrets; those who are worthy will receive them. To give them to those who do not seek, or who are not worthy, would but impoverish the Fraternity and enrich not those who received them.”

Men Giving May Asks Secret Worthy Good Man Honorable Secrecy Fraternity Masonic Masonry Not Worthy

Author:William Howard Taft

“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.”

Source: The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition

“The necessity of procuring good Intelligence is apparent & need not be further urged-All that remains for me to add, is, that you keep the whole matter as secret as possible. For upon Secrecy, Success depends in most Enterprizes of the kind, and for want of it, they are generally defeated, however well planned & promising a favourable issue.”

Want Needs Wells Kind Matter Whole Secret Issues Depends Remains Add Privacy Defeated Secrecy All That Remains

Author:George Washington

“This persistence as private firms continued because it ensured the maximum of anonymity and secrecy to persons of tremendous public power who dreaded public knowledge of their activities as an evil almost as great as inflation.”

Persons Evil Fear Activity Persistence Firm Inflation Maximum Secrecy Anonymity

Book:Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time

Source: Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time

“Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.”

Speak Transition Secrecy Stadiums

Book:Gesamtausgabe

Source: Gesamtausgabe

“I love the secrecy of writing fiction. When I write a novel, I don't tell anybody what I'm doing. I'm living in my private world. And it's a great sensation.”

World Writing Fiction Novel Sensations Secrecy Writing Fiction

Author:Umberto Eco

“If menopause is the silent passage, 'male menopause' is the unspeakable passage. It is fraught with secrecy, shame, and denial. It is much more fundamental than the ending of the fertile period of a woman's life, because it strikes at the core of what it is to be a man.”

Ifs Men Periods Shame Fundamentals Silent Males Strikes Core Denial Passages Secrecy Be A Man Fertile Unspeakable Menopause

Author:Gail Sheehy

“Just finished 'Secrecy' - truly enthralling both as a love story and as a tale of suspense - but much more than both.”

Stories Finished Love Story Tales Suspense Secrecy

Author:Philip Pullman

“The secrecy thing has gotten to be more and more prevalent in films, and maybe that's good. It's nice to go see a film and not know anything about it. Sometimes I feel like we know too much about films.”

Knows Feels Sometimes Film Too Much Nice Secrecy

Author:Karen Allen

“Thus we work not in the light of public opinion but in the secrecy of the chamber; and perhaps the best of us are apt at times to forget the delicacies and sincerities which under these conditions are essential to harmony and honour.”

Light Forget Opinion Conditions Essentials Harmony Honour Sincerity Physicians Public Opinion Chamber Secrecy Delicacy

Author:Clifford Allbutt

“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.”

Knows Believe Mean Government Secret Information Ought Fairs Corruption Thrive Secrecy Presumption Secret Places Corrupt Government

Author:Woodrow Wilson

“Secrecy is for losers. . . . It is time to dismantle government secrecy, this most persuasive of Cold War-era regulations. It is time to begin building the supports for the era of openness that is already upon us.”

War Government Support Building Cold Eras Openness Loser Regulation Cold War Secrecy Persuasive

Author:Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“The bicycles go by in twos and threes - There's a dance in Billy Brennan's barn to-night, And there's the half-talk code of mysteries And the wink-and-elbow language of delight. Half-past eight and there is not a spot Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown That might turn out a man or woman, not A footfall tapping secrecies of stone. I have what every poet hates in spite Of all the solemn talk of contemplation. Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight Of being king and government and nation. A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.”

Source: Selected poems

“We plan to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the preparation of the budget. We also plan to open up the process of government appointments.”

Government Process Plans Preparation Lifts Budgets Veils Secrecy Appointments

Author:Kim Campbell

“Everything is accessible to everyone all the time, and I think there are wondrous things to treasure with what the Internet has made available to journalists. But I think it's also had some effects that are less pleasant. It has chipped away at a sense of privacy and secrecy.”

Thinking Made Effects Internet Available Treasure Journalist Pleasant Privacy Secrecy Wondrous

Author:Bill Keller

“I am a patriot. I have always sought to serve my country, in theory a Republic. Learning that secrecy was evil rather than good was my first step. From there it was a steady march toward open-source everything. Now I see all the evil that secrecy enables in a corrupt Congress, a corrupt Executive, a corrupt economy, and a corrupt society. I see that the greatest service I or any other person can render to the Republic is to march firmly, non-violently, toward open-source everything.”

Firsts Persons Country Evil Steps Economy Theory Source Congress Executives March Republic Steady First Steps Patriot Secrecy Open Source Corrupt Society

Author:Robert David Steele

“But whereas a puppy will cringe away or roll on its back, groveling, a little boy may cover his shyness with nonchalance, with bravado, or with secrecy. And once a boy has suffered rejection, he will find rejection even where it does not exist-or, worse, will draw it forth from people simply by expecting it.”

People May Littles Doe Boys Draws Rejection Expecting Secrecy Puppy Little Boys Shyness Cringe Bravado Groveling Nonchalance

Book:East of Eden, And, The Wayward Bus

Source: East of Eden, And, The Wayward Bus

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

Thinking Purpose Objects Advantage Persuasion Secrecy

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“All sins are committed in secrecy. The moment we realize that God witnesses even our thoughts, we shall be free.”

Moments Realizing Sin Committed Witness Our Thoughts Secrecy

Book:Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India

Source: Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India

“Once the Xerox copier was invented, private diplomacy died. There's no such thing as secrecy. It's just a question of whether it's leaked or revealed openly.”

Society Died Diplomacy Secrecy Xerox Copiers

Author:Andrew Young

“Secrecy is a vacuum and nothing fills a vacuum like paranoid speculation.”

Speculation Secrecy Vacuums Paranoid

Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“To associate with other like-minded people in small, purposeful groups is for the great majority of men and women a source of profound psychological satisfaction. Exclusiveness will add to the pleasure of being several, but at one; and secrecy will intensify it almost to ecstasy.”

People Men Pleasure Groups Society Source Men And Women Majority Add Profound Satisfaction Psychological Ecstasy Associates Secrecy

Book:Complete Essays: 1930-1935

Source: Complete Essays: 1930-1935

“Secrecy is the soul of all great designs.”

Soul Design Secrecy Great Design

Book:Hypocrisy: A Satire

Source: Hypocrisy: A Satire

“In the mind and nature of a man a secret is an ugly thing, like a hidden physical defect.”

Men Mind Secret Ugly Defects Secrecy Ugly Things

Book:Last Tales

Source: Last Tales

“The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy, and perhaps it is partly for that reason that civilized man is so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected.”

Men Should Reason Individual Civilization Privacy Civilized Anxious Personal Life Secrecy Personal Privacy

Book:Five plays

Source: Five plays

“Each of us when he appears before his fellows is clothed in a certain dignity. But every man knows what unconfessable things pass within the secrecy of his own heart.”

Knows Men Heart Certain Dignity Fellows Guilt Every Man Secrecy

Book:Six Characters in Search of an Author

Source: Six Characters in Search of an Author

“Laughter has something in it common with the ancient words of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.”

People Inspiration Forget Common Greater Pride Laughter Ancient Secrecy Unwind

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Secrecy can spring from the best motives; but as it grows it begins to exist only for itself, only for its own sake, only to cover its own abuses.”

Grows Spring Abuse Sake Motive Secrecy

Author:Christopher Dodd

“The higher the classification of secrecy, the quicker you will report it.”

Higher Reports Secrecy Classification

Author:George P. Shultz

“The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.”

Literature Silence Democracy Information Secrecy

Author:Kate Adie