Quotes about secrets
page 16

Honoré de Balzac photo

“The secret of great fortunes without apparent cause is a crime forgotten, for it was properly done.”

Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait.
Part II
A variant, "Behind every great fortune there is a great crime," has appeared as a quotation of Balzac; but it may have originated in a paraphrase in The Oil Barons: Men of Greed and Grandeur (1971) by Richard O'Connor, p. 47: "Balzac maintained that behind every great fortune there is a great crime." It also appears at the beginning of the novel "The Godfather," published two years earlier.
Le Père Goriot (1835)

Louis Pasteur photo

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”

Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) French chemist and microbiologist

As quoted in There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem (2001) by Wayne W. Dyer

John Buchan photo
Robert E. Howard photo
William Hazlitt photo

“Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"On Vulgarity and Affectation" http://books.google.com/books?id=gykJAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Violent+antipathies+are+always+suspicious+and+betray+a+secret+affinity%22&pg=PA377#v=onepage
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

Robert Murray M'Cheyne photo
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“2021. Avoid knowing more than thou needest: Secrets are troublesome Burthens to such as are not interested in them.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

Peter Jennings photo

“[President Bush should] quit hiding behind the Secret Service, come out and face the nation and explain his failure to protect the country.”

Peter Jennings (1938–2005) News anchor

Attributed as an on-air remark (11 September 2001), but fabricated by Lt. Gen. Billy M. Thomas (ret). Discussed and later denied by radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Misattributed

H. G. Wells photo
Ayn Rand photo
Trent Lott photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo
Joni Mitchell photo
Charles Taze Russell photo
James Martineau photo
George W. Bush photo
Dejan Stojanovic photo

“To go where no one else has ever gone before is the secret of heroism.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English

Gene Wolfe photo
William Blackstone photo

“The founders of the English laws have with excellent forecast contrived, that no man should be called to answer to the king for any capital crime, unless upon the preparatory accusation of twelve or more of his fellow subjects, the grand jury: and that the truth of every accusation, whether preferred in the shape of indictment, information, or appeal, should afterwards be confirmed by the unanimous suffrage of twelve of his equals and neighbours, indifferently chosen, and superior to all suspicion. So that the liberties of England cannot but subsist, so long as this palladium remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks, (which none will be so hardy as to make) but also from all secret machinations, which may sap and undermine it; by introducing new and arbitrary methods of trial, by justices of the peace, commissioners of the revenue, and courts of conscience. And however convenient these may appear at first, (as doubtless all arbitrary powers, well executed, are the most convenient) yet let it be again remembered, that delays, and little inconveniences in the forms of justice, are the price that all free nations must pay for their liberty in more substantial matters; that these inroads upon this sacred bulwark of the nation are fundamentally opposite to the spirit of our constitution; and that, though begun in trifles, the precedent may gradually increase and spread, to the utter disuse of juries in questions of the most momentous concern.”

Book IV, ch. 27 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_bk4ch27.asp: Of Trial, And Conviction.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769)

Bruce Springsteen photo
Orson Scott Card photo

“Keeping secrets was the beginning of freedom.”

Lovelock (1994)

Frederick Douglass photo
C. Wright Mills photo
Ai Weiwei photo

“Tax crimes should be investigated by the tax bureau, not through secret police detention.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

“ At home: Ai Weiwei http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/6fdcaae6-5959-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nQPAYr26..” Financial Times, February 24, 2012.
2010-, 2012

Bill Maher photo
Mike Tyson photo
Henrik Ibsen photo

“There are three Empires. First there is the Empire which was founded on the tree of knowledge. Then there is the Empire founded on the tree of the Cross. The third is still a secret Empire which will be founded on the tree of knowledge and the tree of the Cross — brought together.”

Emperor and Galilean (1873), as quoted by Lester B. Pearson in his address on accepting the Nobel Peace Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1957) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1957/pearson-acceptance.html

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“To not say all that can be said is the secret of discipline and economy.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English

Swami Vivekananda photo
George Holmes Howison photo

“Concomitance simply means, at last, that both series of changes are connected with some cause, distinct from either, which is the secret of both.”

George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher

Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Human Immortality: its Positive Argument, p.296

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“The secret of my success is longevity.”

Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) Philosopher

In Herbert F. Vetter, " Not The Average Philosopher http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/hartshorne.html", Harvard Magazine, May/June 1997, Volume 99, Number 5. On his selection to the Library of Living Philosophers.

Bruno Schulz photo

“Shakespeare
clearly heard may voices. No secret:
voicing means hearing, at a price a gift”

Geoffrey Hill (1932–2016) English poet and professor

The Orchards of Syon II.4-6.
Poetry

Jean Dubuffet photo
Francis Bacon photo
Russell L. Ackoff photo
Oliver Lodge photo
Gerard Manley Hopkins photo

“It is the conscious man or woman who finds the secret of happiness and contentment; and that, surely, is the ultimate success.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)

Carl Linnaeus photo

“The Lord himself hath led him with his own Almighty hand.
He hath caused him to spring from a trunk without root, and planted him again in a distant and more delightful spot, and caused him to rise up to a considerable tree.
Inspired him with an inclination for science so passionate as to become the most gratifying of all others.
Given him all the means he could either wish for, or enjoy, of attaining the objects he had in view.
Favoured him in such a manner that even the not obtaining of what he wished for, ultimately turned out to his great advantage.
Caused him to be received into favour by the "Mœcenates Scientiarum"; by the greatest men in the kingdom; and by the Royal Family.
Given him an advantageous and honourable post, the very one that, above all others in the world, he had wished for.
Given him the wife for whom he most wished, and who managed his household affairs whilst he was engaged in laborious studies.
Given him children who have turned out good and virtuous.
Given him a son for his successor in office.
Given him the largest collection of plants that ever existed in the world, and his greatest delight.
Given him lands and other property, so that though there has been nothing superfluous, nothing has he wanted.
Honoured him with the titles of Archiater, Knight, Nobleman, and with Distinction in the learned world.
Protected him from fire.
Preserved his life above 60 years.
Permitted him to visit his secret council-chambers.
Permitted him to see more of the creation than any mortal before him. Given him greater knowledge of natural history than any one had hitherto acquired.
The Lord hath been with him whithersoever he hath walked, and hath cut off all his enemies from before him, and hath made him a name, like the name of the great men that are in the earth. 1 Chron. xvn. 8.”

Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist

As quoted in The Annual Review and History of Literature http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=hx0ZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Lord%20himself%20hath%20led%20him%20with%20his%20own%20Almighty%20hand%22&f=false (1806), by Arthur Aikin, T. N. Longman and O. Rees, p. 472.
Also found in Life of Linnaeus https://archive.org/stream/lifeoflinnaeus00brigiala#page/176/mode/2up/search/endeavoured (1858), by J. Van Voorst & Cecilia Lucy Brightwell, London. pp. 176-177.
Linnaeus Diary

Fiona Apple photo
Hannah Arendt photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“The secret of success is to offend the greatest number of people.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

As quoted in Days with Bernard Shaw (1949) by Stephen Winsten
1940s and later

Guy Debord photo
Nicholas Lore photo
Alexis De Tocqueville photo
Johannes Lichtenauer photo

“Christian Henry Tobler, Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship (2001)”

Johannes Lichtenauer (1300–1389) Founder and grand master of the German School of Swordsmanship

References

Al Gore photo
Charles Kingsley photo
Anu Partanen photo
Bill Bryson photo

“I knew more things in the first ten years of my life than I believe I have known at any time since. I knew everything there was to know about our house for a start. I knew what was written on the undersides of tables and what the view was like from the tops of bookcases and wardrobes. I knew what was to be found at the back of every closet, which beds had the most dust balls beneath them, which ceilings the most interesting stains, where exactly the patterns in wallpaper repeated. I knew how to cross every room in the house without touching the floor, where my father kept his spare change and how much you could safely take without his noticing (one-seventh of the quarters, one-fifth of the nickels and dimes, as many of the pennies as you could carry). I knew how to relax in an armchair in more than one hundred positions and on the floor in approximately seventy- five more. I knew what the world looked like when viewed through a Jell-O lens. I knew how things tasted—damp washcloths, pencil ferrules, coins and buttons, almost anything made of plastic that was smaller than, say, a clock radio, mucus of every variety of course—in a way that I have more or less forgotten now. I knew and could take you at once to any illustration of naked women anywhere in our house, from a Rubens painting of fleshy chubbos in Masterpieces of World Painting to a cartoon by Peter Arno in the latest issue of The New Yorker to my father’s small private library of girlie magazines in a secret place known only to him, me, and 111 of my closest friends in his bedroom.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: The Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006), p. 36

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5037. Three are too many to keep a Secret, and too few to be merry.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Noam Chomsky photo
Herman Cain photo

“Roethlisberger argues that people who are preoccupied with success ask the wrong question. They ask, “what is the secret of success” when they should be asking, “what prevents me from learning here and now?” To be overly preoccupied with the future is to be inattentive toward the present where learning and growth take place. To walk around asking, “am I a success or a failure” is a silly question in the sense that the closest you can come to answer is to say, everyone is both a success and a failure.”

Karl E. Weick (1936) Organisational psychologist

Weick, Karl E. "How Projects Lose Meaning: The Dynamics of Renewal." in Renewing Research Practice by R. Stablein and P. Frost (Eds.). Stanford, CA: Stanford. 2004; cited in: Bob Sutton " Karl Weick On Why "Am I a Success or a Failure?" Is The Wrong Question http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/karl-weick-on-w.html," at bobsutton.typepad.com, April 12, 2008.
2000s

Dana Gioia photo

“The secret of writing comedy is to know where it's all going, then get ahead of it.”

Robert Orben (1928) American magician and writer

Henry Allen (January 4, 1979) "Life in the Laugh Factory", The Washington Post, p. B1.

“A million feathers falling down,
a million stars that touch the ground,
so many secrets to be found
amid the falling snow.”

Enya (1961) Irish singer, songwriter, and musician

Song lyrics, Amarantine (2005)

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“To hide feelings when you are near crying is the secret of dignity.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English

Richard Hooker photo

“There is a wheel within a wheel; a secret sacred wheel of Providence (most visible in marriages), guided by His hand that allows not the race to the swift nor bread to the wise, nor good wives to good men: and He that can bring good out of evil (for mortals are blind to this reason) only knows why this blessing was denied to patient Job, to meek Moses, and to our as meek and patient Mr Hooker.”

Richard Hooker (1554–1600) English bishop and Anglican Divine

Izaak Walton, in Philip B. Secor, Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism and Son of Exeter http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/Clergy/Hooker.html. Walton (August 9, 1593 - December 15, 1683) was the chief biographer of Hooker.
About

Auguste Rodin photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Aleister Crowley photo
William Sharp (writer) photo

“The desire of love, Joy:
The desire of life, Peace:
The desire of the soul, Heaven:
The desire of God … a flame-white secret forever.”

William Sharp (writer) (1855–1905) Scottish writer

Desire, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Jean Giraudoux photo

“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.”

Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944) French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright

As quoted in Murphy's Law Book Two : More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong (1980) by Arthur Bloch, p. 47; similar statements became a routine part of the comedic performances of George Burns.
Attributed

“These words are being written in reply to the verbal message sent by you. I have been asked (by you) to tell (you) about suppression of the rebellion of Jats in the environs of Delhi.
The fact is that this recluse (meaning himself) has witnessed in the occult world the downfall of the Jats in the same way as that of the Marhatahs. I have also seen it in a dream that Muslims have taken possession of the forts and the country of the Jats, and that Muslims have become masters of those forts and that country as in the past. Most probably, the Ruhelas will occupy those Jat forts. This has been determined and decided in the most secret world. This recluse has not the shadow of a doubt about that. But the way that victory will be achieved is not yet clear. What is needed is prayers from those special servants of Allah who have been chosen for this purpose.
…But keep one thing in your mind, namely, that the Hindus who are apparently in your’s and your government’s employ, are inclined towards the enemies in their hearts. They do not want that the enemies be exterminated. They will try a thousand tricks in this matter, and endeavour in every way to show to your honour that the path of peace is more profitable.
Make up your mind not to listen to this group (the Hindu employees). If you disregard their advice, you will reach the height of fulfilment. This recluse knows of this (fulfilment) as if he is seeing it with his own eyes.”

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703–1762) Indian muslim scholar

To Najibuddaulah Translated from the Urdu version of K.A. Nizami, Shãh Walîullah Dehlvî ke Siyãsî Maktûbãt, Second Edition, Delhi, 1969, pp. 106-07.
From his letters

Joseph Addison photo
Mike Oldfield photo
Gracie Allen photo
James Howell photo

“To whom thy secret thou dost tell, to him thy freedom thou dost sell.”

James Howell (1594–1666) Anglo-Welsh historian and writer

Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660)

Anthony Burgess photo
Hugh Walpole photo

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and a thousand other things well.”

Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) New Zealand writer

Said at Keswick, as quoted in The Education Outlook (1926) Vol. 78

Emma Goldman photo
Max Scheler photo
Daniel Handler photo
Warren Farrell photo
Oprah Winfrey photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“If you are to judge a man, you must know his secret thoughts, sorrows, and feelings; to know merely the outward events of a man’s life would only serve to make a chronological table — a fool’s notion of history.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

Pour juger un homme, au moins faut-il être dans le secret de sa pensée, de ses malheurs, de ses émotions; ne vouloir connaître de sa vie que les événements matériels, c'est faire de la chronologie, l'histoire des sots!
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part II: A Woman Without a Heart

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Will the day tell its secret before it disappears, becomes timeless night.”

“Suns and the Night,” p. 45
Circling: 1978-1987 (1993), Sequence: “A Grain”

Sri Aurobindo photo

“Hatred is the sign of a secret attraction that is eager to flee from itself and furious to deny its own existence. That too is God's play in His creature.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Jnana

Thomas Carlyle photo
John Hoole photo
Herbert Giles photo
Gideon Mantell photo
Nikolai Krylenko photo

“One of the difficulties of being the good guys is that even open societies have to have secret police, and secret police turn toward repression as a compass points north.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: Gibbon's Decline & Fall (1996), Chapter 5 (p. 96)

Baltasar Gracián photo

“To hear a prince's secrets is not a privilege but a burden. Many smash the mirror that reminds them of their ugliness. They cannot stand to see those who saw them.”

No es favor del Príncipe, sino pecho, el comunicarlo. Quiebran muchos el espejo porque les acuerda la fealdad. No puede ver al que le pudo ver.
Maxim 237 (p. 134)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Tom Petty photo
Robert Ley photo

“The second German secret weapon is anti-Semitism, because if it is consistently pursued by Germany, it will become a universal problem which all nations will be forced to consider.”

Robert Ley (1890–1945) Nazi politician

Quoted in "Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal" - Page 118 - Nuremberg, Germany - 1947

William Hazlitt photo
Florian Cajori photo

“The history of mathematics may be instructive as well as agreeable; it may not only remind us of what we have, but may also teach us to increase our store. Says De Morgan, "The early history of the mind of men with regards to mathematics leads us to point out our own errors; and in this respect it is well to pay attention to the history of mathematics." It warns us against hasty conclusions; it points out the importance of a good notation upon the progress of the science; it discourages excessive specialization on the part of the investigator, by showing how apparently distinct branches have been found to possess unexpected connecting links; it saves the student from wasting time and energy upon problems which were, perhaps, solved long since; it discourages him from attacking an unsolved problem by the same method which has led other mathematicians to failure; it teaches that fortifications can be taken by other ways than by direct attack, that when repulsed from a direct assault it is well to reconnoitre and occupy the surrounding ground and to discover the secret paths by which the apparently unconquerable position can be taken.”

Source: A History of Mathematics (1893), pp. 1-2; Cited in: Robert Edouard Moritz. Memorabilia mathematica; or, The philomath's quotation-book https://archive.org/stream/memorabiliamathe00moriiala#page/198/mode/2up, (1914) p. 90; Study and research in mathematics