Guard more faithfully the secret which is confided to you than the money which is entrusted to your care.
—Isocrates, c. 370 BCQuotes
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, 1863The first duty of a good inquisitor is to suspect especially those who seem sincere to him.
—Umberto Eco, 1980For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.
—Petronius, c. 60If you read somebody’s diary, you get what you deserve.
—David Sedaris, 2004A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992Once suspicion is aroused, everything feeds it.
—Amelia Edith Barr, 1885The life of spies is to know, not be known.
—George Herbert, c. 1621To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1735There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Secrets are rarely betrayed or discovered according to any program our fear has sketched out.
—George Eliot, 1860There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.
—Aeschylus, c. 458 BC