Spies are of no use nowadays. Their profession is over. The newspapers do their work instead.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895Quotes
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
—Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891The life of spies is to know, not be known.
—George Herbert, c. 1621Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the observing world.
—Aleksandr Pushkin, 1837For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.
—Petronius, c. 60There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
—Francis Bacon, 1625I 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, 1863Secrecy lies at the very core of power.
—Elias Canetti, 1960We must not always talk in the marketplace of what happens to us in the forest.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850The first duty of a good inquisitor is to suspect especially those who seem sincere to him.
—Umberto Eco, 1980Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1735It was funny how I could feel all alone and under surveillance at the same time.
—Cory Doctorow, 2013A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992