
“For iii may keep a counsel if twain be away.”
The Ten Commandments of Love
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1735) : Three may keep a Secret, if two of them are dead.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“For iii may keep a counsel if twain be away.”
The Ten Commandments of Love
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
Source: Quoted by Gerald Gawalt in " In His Own Words: Library Exhibition Celebrates Tercentenary of Benjamin Franklin's Birth https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0601/franklin.html"
[paraphrasing the view of Seneca], p. 34.
The Art of Life (2008)
The Jack Benny Program (Radio: 1932-1955), The Jack Benny Program (Television: 1950-1965)
“Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea.”
Canto III, line 7.
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)
“I will help you approach if you approach, and to keep away if you keep away.”
Te ayudaré a venir si vienes y a no venir si no vienes.
Voces (1943)
“Keep in a dry place, keep away from children and strike gently away from the body.”
Metro interview (10 October 2011) http://metro.co.uk/2011/10/10/alan-moore-my-love-for-my-early-comics-is-like-a-messy-divorce-179350/
Context: I did an interview where I was asked for the best advice I'd been given. I couldn't think of anything, so I read from the back of a packet of Swan Vestas matches by the phone: "Keep in a dry place, keep away from children and strike gently away from the body." They'd written it up without any sense of irony.