Secrets define us, they mark us, they set us apart from all the others. The secrets which we preserve provide a key to who we are, deep down.
—Nuruddin Farah, 1998Quotes
There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.
—Aeschylus, c. 458 BCIf you read somebody’s diary, you get what you deserve.
—David Sedaris, 2004To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1735If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
—William Hazlitt, 1823A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the observing world.
—Aleksandr Pushkin, 1837The life of spies is to know, not be known.
—George Herbert, c. 1621For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.
—Petronius, c. 60The first duty of a good inquisitor is to suspect especially those who seem sincere to him.
—Umberto Eco, 1980I 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