As quoted in Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '87 (1988) edited by F. J. Duarte, p. 1165
“Abstruse dullness is actually a much more effective shield than is secrecy. For the great disadvantage of secrecy is that it’s interesting.”
Source: The Pale King
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David Foster Wallace 185
American fiction writer and essayist 1962–2008Related quotes
15 January 1753
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.”
“Maxims,” Testament Politique (1641)
“Real power begins where secrecy begins.”
Part 3, Ch. 12, § 1.
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
“Secrecy as deep as this is past possibility without nonexistence as well.”
Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 1 “Two Men and the Mule”; in part I, “Search by the Mule” originally published as “Now You See It—” in Astounding (January 1948)
“Silence is not just about secrecy, Your Majesty. It is grief and it is shame.”
Source: Froi of the Exiles
On Publicity http://books.google.com/books?id=AusJAAAAIAAJ&q="Secresy+is+an+instrument+of+conspiracy+it+ought+not+therefore+to+be+the+system+of+a+regular+government"&pg=PA315#v=onepage from The Works of Jeremy Bentham volume 2, part 2 (1839)