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

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

Secrets are rarely betrayed or discovered according to any program our fear has sketched out.

If you read somebody’s diary, you get what you deserve.

It was funny how I could feel all alone and under surveillance at the same time.

Once suspicion is aroused, everything feeds it.

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

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

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