Aimee Friedman quote: “… Promises are more dangerous then secrets.”

“A secret remains a secret until you make someone promise never to reveal it.”

Fausto Cercignani (1941) Italian scholar, essayist and poet

Examples of self-translation (c. 2004), Quotes - Zitate - Citations - Citazioni

“If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

1970s, First Presidential address (1974)
Context: I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many.
If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman — my dear wife — as I begin this very difficult job.

“A lover who promises eternal fidelity is more likely to be believed if he believes his promise himself; he is no more likely to keep the promise.”

John Gray book Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

The Human: Truth and Consequences (p. 27)
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)

“For believe me! — the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously!”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Sec. 283; Variant translation: For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is — to live dangerously.
The Gay Science (1882)
Context: For believe me! — the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Live at war with your peers and yourselves! Be robbers and conquerors as long as you cannot be rulers and possessors, you seekers of knowledge! Soon the age will be past when you could be content to live hidden in forests like shy deer! At long last the search for knowledge will reach out for its due: — it will want to rule and possess, and you with it!

“Don't ever promise more than you can deliver, but always deliver more than you promise.”

Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer

“All the political, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot have any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

As quoted in Nikos Kazantzakis (1968) by Helen Kazantzakis, p. 529
Context: Having seen that I was not capable of using all my resources in political action, I returned to my literary activity. There lay the the battlefield suited to my temperament. I wanted to make my novels the extension of my own father's struggle for liberty. But gradually, as I kept deepening my responsibility as a writer, the human problem came to overshadow political and social questions. All the political, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot have any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks.

“I know too well how dangerous hope can be, how it grows and sometimes dies, taking its host with it. It's more powerful than anything Dr. Fibs keeps in his labs, more precious than all the secrets inside Sublevel Two.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“When women are secret they are secret indeed; and more often then not they only begin to be secret with the advent of a second lover.”

Thomas Hardy book A Pair of Blue Eyes

Source: A Pair of Blue Eyes

“Magic is dangerous - but love is more dangerous still”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.”

Diane Arbus (1923–1971) American photographer and author

Source: Estrin, James, Diane Arbus, 1923-1971, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-diane-arbus.html, 6 November 2018, The New York Times, 8 March 2018]

Diane Arbus: Revelations. New York: Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-375-50620-9.

Ault, Alicia, A Window into the World of Diane Arbus: Photographs from the portfolio, "A box of 10," reveal photographer's secrets, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/window-world-diane-arbus-180968861/, 13 November 2018, Smithsonian, 24 April 2018

“… Promises are more dangerous then secrets.”

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