Pastoral Resources

The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.

In such a case secrecy must be absolute to be effective, and although mere vague curiosity induced many persons of my intimate acquaintance to ask to be allowed to just go in and have a peep, I never admitted anyone.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

We are all, in a sense, experts on secrecy. From earliest childhood we feel its mystery and attraction. We know both the power it confers and the burden it imposes. We learn how it can delight, give breathing space and protect.

While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

Until we have a better relationship between private performance and the public truth, as was demonstrated with Watergate, we as the public are absolutely right to remain suspicious, contemptuous even, of the secrecy and the misinformation which is the digest of our news.

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

The sinner will not confess, nor will the priest receive his confession, if the veil of secrecy is removed.

But then, so far as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledged his assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarial oath.

Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.

They work in secrecy. I can't get any information. You can't find out anything until they get out to the floor. And it's hard to lick em at that stage. They're a closed corporation. When they stick together, you can't lick em on the floor.

So far as I know, there were no pains taken to preserve secrecy on this subject; that is, I saw no attempt made to keep any of the inmates of the Convent in ignorance of the murder of children.

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.

There is nothing we like to communicate to others as much as the seal of secrecy together with what lies under it.

Secrecy is the enemy of efficiency, but don't let anyone know it.

In all secrets there is a kind of guilt, however beautiful or joyful they may be, or for what good end they may be set to serve. Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the moral mind.

I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don't need a national ID card.

A diagnosis is burden enough without being burdened by secrecy and shame.