“There wasn’t even any reasoning. Secrecy was just a bureaucrats’ reflex.”
Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter 22 (p. 276)
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China Miéville102
English writer 1972Related quotes
Heather Brooke (1970) American journalist
Page 35.
The Silent State: Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy, 1st Edition
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist
Ackoff (2006) A little book of f-laws: 13 common sins of management. p. 12.
2000s
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
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.”
Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer
Source: Froi of the Exiles
“It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.”
Donald Rumsfeld (1932) U.S. Secretary of Defense
As quoted in The Chicago Tribune (13 April 1966)
1960s
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director
"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.