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

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

Spies are of no use nowadays. Their profession is over. The newspapers do their work instead.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

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

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

Even a paranoid can have enemies.

Secrets define us, they mark us, they set us apart from all the others. The secrets which we preserve provide a key to who we are, deep down.

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.

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

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