The secret of two is God’s secret, the secret of three is everybody’s secret
—Common Proverb
The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
I am convinced digestion is the great secret of life.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
If you would keep your Secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Public lives are lived out on the job and in the marketplace, where certain rules, conventions, laws, and social customs keep most of us in line. Private lives are lived out in the presence of family, friends, and neighbors who must be considered and respected even though the rules and proscriptions are looser than what’s allowed in public. But in our secret lives, inside our own heads, almost anything goes.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Universalist Author, Essayist, Clergyman
No one ever keeps a secret so well as a child.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
The secret to humor is surprise.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Women’s propensity to share confidences is universal. We confirm our reality by sharing.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Journalist, Essayist, Memoirist, Travel Writer
Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also—if you love them enough.
—George Washington Carver (1864–1943) American Scientist, Botanist, Educator, Inventor
What one hides is worth neither more nor less than what one finds. And what one hides from oneself is worth neither more nor less than what one allows others to find.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
You know there are no secrets in America. It’s quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
Keep shut the doors of thy mouth Even from the wife of thy bosom.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
That which man conceals in his innermost chamber is plain and manifest to God.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart, the secret anniversaries of the heart, when the full tide of feeling overflows.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Though thousands do thy friendship seek, To one alone thy secret speak.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
He that has light within his own cleer brest
May sit ith center, and enjoy bright day,
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day Sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
A secret is like a dove: when it leaves my hand it takes wing.
—Arabic Proverb
Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret.
—Henny Youngman (1906–98) Anglo-American Comedian, Violinist
What is told into the ear of a man is often heard a hundred miles away.
—Chinese Proverb
The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands.
—Sun Tzu (fl. c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
It is wise to disclose what cannot be concealed.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind he has descended into the secrets of all minds.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A woman can keep one secret – the secret of her age
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
A man can keep a secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
To him that you tell your secret you resign your liberty.
—Anonymous
The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
Three can keep a secret if two are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven’t changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don’t change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.
—Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British Novelist, Poet
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
A secret between two is God’s secret, between three is all men s.
—Spanish Proverb
Our true history is scarcely ever deciphered by others. The chief part of the drama is a monologue, or rather an intimate debate between God, our conscience, and ourselves. Tears, grieves, depressions, disappointments, irritations, good and evil thoughts, decisions, uncertainties, deliberations—all these belong to our secret, and are almost all incommunicable and intransmissible, even when we try to speak of them, and even when we write them down.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Secrets travel fast in Paris.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Thy secret is thy slave. If thou let it loose, thou becomest its slave.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Do not reveal thy secret to the apes.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
In the long run, there are no secrets. in science. The universe will not cooperate in a cover-up.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Scientist, Science-fiction Writer
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat