We must not always talk in the marketplace of what happens to us in the forest.

Spies are of no use nowadays. Their profession is over. The newspapers do their work instead.

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

Secrecy lies at the very core of power.

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

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

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

Even a paranoid can have enemies.

For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.

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

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.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

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