Lapham’s Quarterly

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

If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

Secrecy lies at the very core of power.

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

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

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

Even a paranoid can have enemies.

We must not always talk in the marketplace of what happens to us in the forest.

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

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

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

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

The life of spies is to know, not be known.

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

To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.

Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the observing world.