Secrecy Quotes - Page 6

• The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. . . . Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty.

  Carl Sagan

  Honesty, Ideas, Democracy

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• CALVIN: This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn't make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery? If the guy exists why doesn't he ever show himself and prove it? And if he doesn't exist what's the meaning of all this? HOBBES: I dunno. Isn't this a religious holiday? CALVIN: Yeah, but actually, I've got the same questions about God.

  Bill Watterson

  Religious, Holiday, Guy

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• If menopause is the silent passage, 'male menopause' is the unspeakable passage. It is fraught with secrecy, shame, and denial. It is much more fundamental than the ending of the fertile period of a woman's life, because it strikes at the core of what it is to be a man.

  Gail Sheehy

  Men, Males, Denial

  "Male Menopause: New Book Argues Midlife Transition Is Just As Hard On Men" By Shelley Emling, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 7, 2012.

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• The secrecy thing has gotten to be more and more prevalent in films, and maybe that's good. It's nice to go see a film and not know anything about it. Sometimes I feel like we know too much about films.

  Karen Allen

  Nice, Too Much, Sometimes

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• It has unfortunately now become a habit for so many generations, that it has almost passed into an instinct throughout the Jewish body, to rely upon the weapon of secrecy. Secret societies, a language kept as far as possible secret, the use of false names in order to hide secret movements, secret relations between various parts of the Jewish body: all these and other forms of secrecy have become the national method.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Order, Names, Rely Upon

  Hilaire Belloc, Herbert Maurice Van Thal, Jane Soames Nickerson (1970). “Belloc: a biographical anthology”, Allen & Unwin Australia

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• The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
  There's a dance in Billy Brennan's barn to-night,
  And there's the half-talk code of mysteries
  And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
  Half-past eight and there is not a spot
  Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
  That might turn out a man or woman, not
  A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.
  I have what every poet hates in spite
  Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
  Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
  Of being king and government and nation.
  A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king
  Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

  Patrick Kavanagh

  Kings, Hate, Past

  Patrick Kavanagh (2000). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Classics

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• Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.

  Georg Simmel

  Transition, Speak, Stadiums

  Georg Simmel, Otthein Rammstedt (2008). “Gesamtausgabe”

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• We plan to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the preparation of the budget. We also plan to open up the process of government appointments.

  Kim Campbell

  Government, Preparation, Veils

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• Thus we work not in the light of public opinion but in the secrecy of the chamber; and perhaps the best of us are apt at times to forget the delicacies and sincerities which under these conditions are essential to harmony and honour.

  Clifford Allbutt

  Light, Physicians, Essentials

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• Just finished 'Secrecy' - truly enthralling both as a love story and as a tale of suspense - but much more than both.

  Philip Pullman

  Suspense, Stories, Love Story

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• Everything is accessible to everyone all the time, and I think there are wondrous things to treasure with what the Internet has made available to journalists. But I think it's also had some effects that are less pleasant. It has chipped away at a sense of privacy and secrecy.

  Bill Keller

  Thinking, Treasure, Privacy

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• I am a patriot. I have always sought to serve my country, in theory a Republic. Learning that secrecy was evil rather than good was my first step. From there it was a steady march toward open-source everything. Now I see all the evil that secrecy enables in a corrupt Congress, a corrupt Executive, a corrupt economy, and a corrupt society. I see that the greatest service I or any other person can render to the Republic is to march firmly, non-violently, toward open-source everything.

  Robert David Steele

  Country, Evil, Republic

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• The broad outlines of the Double Cross deception have been known since 1972, when Sir John Masterman, the former chairman of the double agent committee, controversially published his account of the operation in defiance of official secrecy.

  Ben Macintyre

  Deception, Agents, Crosses

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• It is much more convenient not to be a public company. As a private company you don't have to give information to the public. Secrecy is an important factor of success in the commodity business.

  Marc Rich

  Giving, Important, Information

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• In 1977, when I started my first job at the Federal Reserve Board as a staff economist in the Division of International Finance, it was an article of faith in central banking that secrecy about monetary policy decisions was the best policy: Central banks, as a rule, did not discuss these decisions, let alone their future policy intentions.

  Janet Yellen

  Jobs, Decision, Boards

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• From the very beginning of this movement, Scientology has always been a very closeted organization. That aura of secrecy is something that the present-day management continues.

  Lawrence Wright

  Organization, Movement, Auras

  "Lawrence Wright on 'Going Clear'". Interview with Mark Guarino, www.chicagotribune.com. January 18, 2013.

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• The 'Bourne' movies are great in their own ways; it introduces a whole other sort of allegory about the Bush years. The secrecy and the threats of a big global organization.

  Chris Terrio

  Years, Organization, Way

  "'Argo' Screenwriter Explains the CIA Secrets and Surprises Behind the Film". Interview with Jordan Zakarin, www.hollywoodreporter.com. October 15, 2012.

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• Candidate Obama was either exceptionally naive or willfully disingenuous when he vowed to change the way Washington works. The very promise of Hope and Change was rooted in uprooting the Washington modus operandi. But instead of rejecting it, he embraced it all - the secrecy, the closed doors, the political favors, the near-criminal negligence.

  Reince Priebus

  Doors, Political, Promise

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• The higher the classification of secrecy, the quicker you will report it.

  George P. Shultz

  Higher, Classification, Reports

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• Laughter has something in it common with the ancient words of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Laughter, Inspiration, Pride

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• Each of us when he appears before his fellows is clothed in a certain dignity. But every man knows what unconfessable things pass within the secrecy of his own heart.

  Luigi Pirandello

  Heart, Men, Guilt

  Luigi Pirandello (2016). “Six Characters In Search of an Author”, p.19, Jester House Publishing

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• Secrecy is a vacuum and nothing fills a vacuum like paranoid speculation.

  Max Brooks

  Vacuums, Paranoid, Speculation

  Max Brooks (2006). “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War”, p.45, Broadway Books

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• Once the Xerox copier was invented, private diplomacy died. There's no such thing as secrecy. It's just a question of whether it's leaked or revealed openly.

  Andrew Young

  Society, Diplomacy, Copiers

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• All sins are committed in secrecy. The moment we realize that God witnesses even our thoughts, we shall be free.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Realizing, Sin, Moments

  Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

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• But whereas a puppy will cringe away or roll on its back, groveling, a little boy may cover his shyness with nonchalance, with bravado, or with secrecy. And once a boy has suffered rejection, he will find rejection even where it does not exist-or, worse, will draw it forth from people simply by expecting it.

  John Steinbeck

  Boys, People, Rejection

  John Steinbeck (1952). “East of Eden, And, The Wayward Bus”

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