
“There are no more thorough prudes than those who have some little secret to hide.”
Source: The Art of War, Chapter XIII · Intelligence and Espionage
故三军之事,莫亲于间,赏莫厚于间,事莫密于间,
“There are no more thorough prudes than those who have some little secret to hide.”
“… the only way to keep your secrets safe is to have none at all…”
Source: Stunning
“None, none descends into himself, to find
The secret imperfections of his mind.”
Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere! nemo!
Sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo.
Satire IV, line 23 (translated by John Dryden).
The Satires
“Tis a secret: none knows how it comes, how it goes:
But the name of the secret is Love!”
Source: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 19: A Fairy Duet
“What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.”
1860s, First State of the Union address (1861)
Context: It has been said that one bad general is better than two good ones, and the saying is true if taken to mean no more than that an army is better directed by a single mind, though inferior, than by two superior ones at variance and cross-purposes with each other. And the same is true in all joint operations wherein those engaged can have none but a common end in view and can differ only as to the choice of means. In a storm at sea no one on board can wish the ship to sink, and yet not unfrequently all go down together because too many will direct and no single mind can be allowed to control.
Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Desolation Row