Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Secrecy is for the happy; misery, hopeless misery needs no veil; under a thousand suns it dares act openly.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who has entrusted it.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
A secret is too little for one, enough for two, and too much for three.
—Jeremiah Brown Howell
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 resolution that is communicated is no longer within thy power; thy intentions become now the plaything of chance; he who would have his commands certainly carried out must take men by surprise.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
He that discovers himself till he hath made himself master of his desires, lays himself open to his own ruin, and makes himself a prisoner to his own tongue.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
What thou seest speak of with caution.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
To tell our own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
What is mine, even to my life, is hers I love; but the secret of my friend is not mine.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
Fire that is closest kept burns most of all.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Secrets are so seldom kept, that it may be with some reason doubted, whether the quality of retention be generally bestowed, and whether a secret has not some subtile volatility by which it escapes imperceptibility, at the smallest vent, or some power of fermentation, by which it expands itself, so as to burst the heart that will not give it way.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
He deserves small trust who is not privy counsellor to himself.
—John M. Ford (1957–2006) American Novelist, Writer, Poet
It is said that he or she who admits the possession of a secret, has already half revealed it.—It is a great deal gained toward the acquisition of a treasure, to know exactly where it is.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Historian, Novelist, Editor
Who shall be true to us, when we are so unsecret to ourselves?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Secrecy has been well termed the soul of all great designs. Perhaps more has been effected by concealing our own intentions, than by discovering those of our enemy. But great men succeed in both.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
If a fool knows a secret, he tells it because he is a fool: if a knave knows one, he tells it whenever it is his interest to tell it. But women and young men are very apt to tell what secrets they know, from the vanity of having been trusted. Trust none of these whenever you can help it.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Secrecy is the chastity of friendship.
—Jeremy Taylor
Conceal thy domestic ills.
—Thales of Miletus (c.624–c.545 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician
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
I will govern my life and my thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other.—For what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Secrets with girls, like guns with boys, are never valued till they make a noise.
—George Crabbe
When two friends part they should lock up one another’s secrets, and interchange their keys.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
‘Tis in my memory locked, and you yourself shall keep the key of it.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Thou hast betrayed thy secret as a bird betrays her nest, by striving to conceal it.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
People addicted to secrecy are so without knowing why; they are not so for cause, but for secrecy’s sake.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
A secret in his mouth is like a wild bird put into a cage; whose door no sooner opens, but it is out.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
Talkers and futile persons are commonly vain and credulous withal, for he that talketh what he knoweth will also talk what he knoweth not; therefore set it down that a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher