Secrecy Quotes - Page 13

• Well then, "Katsa said. "Of course, we'll operate with the greatest possible secrecy, Bitterblue. And for what it's worth, we'll deny your involvement to our dying breaths, and I'll kill anyone who doesn't." Bann began to laugh into Raffin's shoulder. Smiling, Raffin said sideways to him, "Can you imagine what it would be like to be able to say that and mean it?

  Kristin Cashore

  Mean, Laughing, Dying

  Kristin Cashore (2012). “Bitterblue”, p.106, Penguin

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• We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.

  Franz Kafka

  Justice, Age, Able

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• Of course, corporations and governments have a right to something for their money. They pay the wages. But they don't have the ethical right to literally purchase the copyright of a citizen's potential contribution to society. In a democracy they should not have the legal right to silence the quasi-totality of the functioning élite in order to satisfy a managerial taste for control and secrecy.

  John Ralston Saul

  Order, Government, Silence

  "On Equilibrium". Book by John Ralston Saul, 2001.

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• It is time for the truth to be brought out... Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense... I urge immediate Congressional action to reduce the dangers from secrecy about Unidentified Flying Objects

  Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter

  Believe, Air, Flying

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• in rejecting secrecy I had also rejected the road to cynicism.

  Catherine Marshall

  Positive, Cynicism, Rejected

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• Opinions become dangerous to a state only when persecution makes it necessary for the people to communicate their ideas under the bond of secrecy.

  Charles James Fox

  Ideas, People, Speech

  Charles James Fox (1815). “The speeches of the right honourable Charles James Fox, in the House of Commons”, p.335

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• The secrecy that shrouded the vote counting by the special election committee cast doubts on the results and lacks transparency.

  Hosni Mubarak

  Doubt, Special, Election

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• Some men are tempted to violate secrecy from the uneasiness secrecy gives them, and others, merely to impress you with the extent of their confidence.

  Norm MacDonald

  Men, Giving, Impress

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• To the man who cherishes a secret in his breast, there is a still greater secret unexplored. Our most indifferent acts may be a matter for secrecy, but whatever we do with the utmost truthfulness and integrity, by virtue of its pureness, must be transparent as light.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Light

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.222, Xist Publishing

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• Good deeds shun the light as anxiously as evil deeds: the latter fear that disclosure will bring on pain (as punishment), while the former fear that disclosure will take away pleasure (that pure pleasure, that pleasure per se, which immediately ceases once the vanity's satisfaction is added).

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Pain, Vanity, Light

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• The only ones to profit from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing are the owners of the fishing fleets who remain hidden behind veils of corporate secrecy.

  Achim Steiner

  Fishing, Veils, Illegal

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• Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors, and tired librarians. Like everything of importance since the invention of the cloak and the shroud, its origins are cloaked in mystery and shrouded in secrecy. Some scholars believe that the first instance of book burning occurred in the Middle Ages, when a monk was trying to illuminate a manuscript. All agree that book burning was almost non-existent during the period when books were made of stone.

  Richard Armour

  Atheist, Children, Believe

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• Secrecy breeds incompetence because where there is failure, failure is kept secret.

  Julian Assange

  Secret, Kept Secrets, Incompetence

  "Julian Assange: The Byline Interviews, Part One – ‘The God of Mass Surveillance". Interview with Seung-yoon Lee, www.byline.com. June 11, 2015.

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• All art that is not mere storytelling, or mere portraiture, is symbolic, and has the purpose of those symbolic talismans which medieval magicians made with complex colours and forms, and bade their patients ponder over daily, and guard with holy secrecy; for it entangles, in complex colours and forms, a part of the Divine Essence.

  William Butler Yeats

  Art, Essence, Purpose

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• Secrecy in science does not work. Withholding information does more damage to us than to our competitors.

  Edward Teller

  Doe, Information, Damage

  "Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '87" edited by F. J. Duarte, (p. 1165), 1988.

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• We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its State, its National conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.There isnot a crime, there isnot a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away.

  Joseph Pulitzer

  Feet, Democracy, Vices

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• Heidegger makes the distinction between being absorbed in the way things are in the world and being aware that things are in the world. And if you do the latter, you're not so worried about the everyday trivialities of life, for example, petty concerns about secrecy or privacy.

  Irvin D. Yalom

  Everyday, World, Way

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• The film's title star, Christian Bale, told me in June that he'd signed a multi-picture contract. When I caught up with Batman Begins ... All I can tell you is, we're talking. There was quite an air of secrecy around the development of 'Batman Begins,' and there will be even more around the development of another film, if they move forward.

  Christopher Nolan

  Christian, Stars, Moving

  "Industry Buzz" by Hugh Hart, www.sfgate.com. August 21, 2005.

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• Let it be your business every day, in the secrecy of the inner chamber, to meet the holy God. You will be repaid for the trouble it may cost you. The reward will be sure and rich.

  Andy Murray

  Prayer, Cost, May

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• Nonviolence abhors fear and therefore, secrecy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Nonviolence

  Mahatma Gandhi, Judith M. Brown (2008). “The Essential Writings”, p.173, Oxford University Press

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• The White House is the leakiest place I've ever been in. (On special measures to ensure secrecy of plans to bomb Libya)

  Ronald Reagan

  White, House, Special

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• Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

  William Saroyan

  Heart, Shining, Sorrow

  Eugene O'Neill, Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Coe Howard, DuBose Heyward, Elmer Rice (1988). “Famous American plays of the 1920s and the 1930s”

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• The wise man tells not what he knows. It is not prudent to sport with one's head by revealing the king's secrets.

  Saadi

  Wise, Sports, Kings

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.97, Innovations and Information

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• It is safer to be silent than to reveal one's secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it.

  Saadi

  Secret, Silent

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.149, Innovations and Information

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• God preserve us! If men knew what is done in secret, no one would be free from the interference of others.

  Saadi

  Men, Secret, Would Be

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.168, Innovations and Information

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