secrets

1.

When a friend, then, indulges in the joy of unburdening a secret on to another friend's bosom, he makes the latter, in his turn, feel the urge to taste the same joy himself. He implores him, it is true, not to tell a soul; but if such a condition were taken absolutely literally, it would at once cut off the flow of these joys at their very source. The general practice is for the secret to be confided only to an equally trustworthy friend, the same conditions being imposed on him. And so from trustworthy friend to trustworthy friend the secret goes moving on round that immense chain, until finally it reaches the ears of just the very person or persons whom the first talker had expressly intended it never should reach.

- Manzoni, Alessandro

2.

Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.

- Lavater, Johann Kaspar

3.

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.

- Taylor, Sir Henry

4.

Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret.

- Diane Ackerman

5.

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.

- Breton, Andre

6.

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.

- Amiel, Henri Frederic

7.

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

- Frost, Robert

8.

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

- Johnson, Samuel

9.

The old idea that the joke was not good enough for the company has been superseded by the new aristocratic idea that the company was not worthy of the joke. They have introduced an almost insane individualism into that one form of intercourse which is specially and uproariously communal. They have made even levities into secrets. They have made laughter lonelier than tears.

- Chesterton, Gilbert K.

10.

His mind of man, a secret makes I meet him with a start he carries a circumference in which I have no part.

- Dickinson, Emily

11.

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

12.

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of the State.

- Richelieu, Cardinal De

13.

Three can keep a secret if two are dead.

- Franklin, Benjamin

14.

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.

- Andre Malraux

15.

Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

- Disney, Walt

16.

If you have to keep something secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!

- David Nicholls

17.

The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them.

- Ayn Rand

18.

It is wise to disclose what cannot be concealed.

- Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

19.

Take hold lightly; let go lightly. This is one of the great secrets of felicity in love.

- Spanish Proverb

20.

Secrecy is the chastity of friendship.

- Taylor, Jeremy