Archive

Quotes

The first duty of a good inquisitor is to suspect especially those who seem sincere to him.

—Umberto Eco, 1980

It was funny how I could feel all alone and under surveillance at the same time.

—Cory Doctorow, 2013

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1735

If you read somebody’s diary, you get what you deserve.

—David Sedaris, 2004

Even a paranoid can have enemies.

—Henry Kissinger, 1977

There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.

—Aeschylus, c. 458 BC

Guard more faithfully the secret which is confided to you than the money which is entrusted to your care.

—Isocrates, c. 370 BC

The life of spies is to know, not be known.

—George Herbert, c. 1621

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.

—P.D. James, 1992

I will never again command an army in America if we must carry along paid spies. I will banish myself to some foreign country first.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863

To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.

—Quentin Crisp, 1968

If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.

—William Hazlitt, 1823