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Quotes

I will never again command an army in America if we must carry along paid spies. I will banish myself to some foreign country first.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863

Guard more faithfully the secret which is confided to you than the money which is entrusted to your care.

—Isocrates, c. 370 BC

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

—George Eliot, 1860

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.

—Nuruddin Farah, 1998

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.

—Petronius, c. 60

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

—Cory Doctorow, 2013

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

—Benjamin Franklin, 1735

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

—P.D. James, 1992
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