“There wasn’t even any reasoning. Secrecy was just a bureaucrats’ reflex.”
Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter 22 (p. 276)
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China Miéville 102
English writer 1972Related quotes

Page 35.
The Silent State: Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy, 1st Edition

Ackoff (2006) A little book of f-laws: 13 common sins of management. p. 12.
2000s

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), II : The Starting-Point
“Silence is not just about secrecy, Your Majesty. It is grief and it is shame.”
Source: Froi of the Exiles

“It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.”
As quoted in The Chicago Tribune (13 April 1966)
1960s

"Freedom for Whom", as translated in Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 18
Context: Firebugs dragging their gasoline bottles
Are approaching the Academy of Arts, with a grin.
And so, instead of embracing them, Let us demand the freedom of the elbow
To knock the bottles out of their filthy hands.
Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat,
Provided he loves peace,
Is a greater lover of the arts
Than any so-called art-lover
Who loves the arts of war.