Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [41-51] of 51 Secrecy quotesSecrecy QuotesSecrecy Previous 20 quotes There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant “to be known,” that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.~ Carl Sagan It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.~ Bruce Schneier We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples? There are no limits to our greed, none to our cruelty. And as long as such crimes are committed by stealth and by individuals, they are less harmful and less portentous; but cruelties are practised in accordance with acts of senate and popular assembly, and the public is bidden to do that which is forbidden to the individual. Deeds that would be punished by loss of life when committed in secret, are praised by us because uniformed generals have carried them out. Man, naturally the gentlest class of being, is not ashamed to revel in the blood of others, to wage war, and to entrust the waging of war to his sons, when even dumb beasts and wild beasts keep the peace with one another. Against this overmastering and widespread madness philosophy has become a matter of greater effort, and has taken on strength in proportion to the strength which is gained by the opposition forces.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.~ George Bernard Shaw A free society can exist only when public spirit is balanced by an equal inclination of men to mind their own business.~ Edward A. Shils The obsessive fear of secrets culminates in the denial of the right of private difference, which is the denial of the right of others to possess a sphere of privacy.~ Edward A. Shils The planning of UN can be traced to the “secret steering committee” established by Secretary [of State Cordell] Hull in January 1943. All of the members of this secret committee, with the exception of Hull, a Tennessee politician, were members of the Council on Foreign Relations. They saw Hull regularly to plan, select, and guide the labors of the [State] Department’s Advisory Committee. It was, in effect, the coordinating agency for all the State Department’s postwar planning.~ Laurence H. Shoup I think I have served the purpose that I came here for, which was to provide a credible election product for our members.~ Brenda Snipes Till then we shall be content to admit openly, what you (religionists) whisper under your breath or hide in technical jargon, that the ancient secret is a secret still; that man knows nothing of the Infinite and Absolute; and that, knowing nothing, he had better not be dogmatic about his ignorance. And, meanwhile, we will endeavour to be as charitable as possible, and whilst you trumpet forth officially your contempt for our skepticism, we will at least try to believe that you are imposed upon by your own bluster.~ Leslie Stephen The major function of secrecy in Washington is to keep the U.S. people ... from knowing what the nation’s leaders are doing.~ John Stockwell Police State: A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force.~ Yahooligans Reference Previous 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print