Archive

Quotes

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

—Petronius, c. 60

Secrecy lies at the very core of power.

—Elias Canetti, 1960

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

Once suspicion is aroused, everything feeds it.

—Amelia Edith Barr, 1885

Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the observing world.

—Aleksandr Pushkin, 1837

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

—P.D. James, 1992

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

—George Herbert, c. 1621

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

—Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891

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

—Umberto Eco, 1980
  •