“A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones.”
15 January 1753
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 65
British statesman and man of letters 1694–1773Related quotes
The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Simulation And Dissimulation
Picador 2015 edition, p. 12
No Place to Hide (2014)
“Only mystery allows us to live, only mystery.”
“There is no magic, only mysteries explained, and mysteries unexplained.”
Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 8, “Pallid Hounds A-Hunting” Section 1 (p. 106)
“There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part.”
Source: Time and Again (1951), Chapter I (p. 6)
Context: There is mystery here, but a soft, sure mystery that is understood and only remains a mystery because I want it so. The mystery of the nighthawk against a darkening sky, the puzzle of the firefly along the lilac hedge.
“Belief in mysteries, any manner of mysteries, is the only lasting luxury in life.”
Source: The Witches of Worm
“Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.”
“Maxims,” Testament Politique (1641)