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
Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Thy secret is thy slave. If thou let it loose, thou becomest its slave.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The secret of two is God’s secret, the secret of three is everybody’s secret.
—Common Proverb
To him that you tell your secret you resign your liberty.
—Anonymous
Keep shut the doors of thy mouth Even from the wife of thy bosom.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
It is wise to disclose what cannot be concealed.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
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
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 Author, Essayist, Clergyman
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
Shy and unready men are great betrayers of secrets; for there are few wants more urgent for the moment than the want of something to say.
—Henry Taylor (1800–86) British Poet, Dramatist
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that everyone of those darkly clustered houses encloses it’s own secret that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of it’s imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Women’s propensity to share confidences is universal. We confirm our reality by sharing.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Writer, Essayist, Critic
Though thousands do thy friendship seek, To one alone thy secret speak.
—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
A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
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
Three can keep a secret if two are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Secrecy is the chastity of friendship.
—Jeremy Taylor
Do not reveal thy secret to the apes.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
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
No one ever keeps a secret so well as a child.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
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
We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
What is told into the ear of a man is often heard a hundred miles away.
—Chinese Proverb
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