Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Secrecy
For this thing was not done in a corner.
Acts. XXVI. 26.
A man can hide all things, excepting twain—
That he is drunk, and that he is in love.
Antiphanes—Fragmenta. See Meineke’s Fragmenta Comicorum Græcorum. Vol. III. P. 3. Seq. Also in Didot’s Poet. Com. Græ. P. 407.
When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.
Sir Thomas Browne—Vulgar Errors. Of Speaking Under the Rose.—Pseudodoxia. 5. 23.
Est rosa flos Veneris cujus quo furta laterent.
As given in Burmann’s Anthologia. Bk. V. 217. (1778). Sub rosa. Under the rose (i.e., secretly). The rose was emblematic of secrecy with the ancients. Cupid bribed Harpocrates, god of silence, with a rose, not to divulge the amours of Venus. Hence a host hung a rose over his tables that his guests might know that under it words spoken were to remain secret. Harpocrates is Horus, god of the rising sun. Found in Gregory Nazianzen—Carmen. Vol. II. P. 27. (Ed. 1611).
For thre may kepe a counsel, if twain be awaie.
Chaucer—The Ten Commandments of Love. 41. Herbert—Jacula Prudentum. Heywood—Proverbs. Pt. II. Ch. V.
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.
Deuteronomy. XXIX. 29.
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Benj. Franklin—Poor Richard. (1735).
As witnesses that the things were not done in a corner.
Gen. Thomas Harrison—Defence at his trial. Account of the Trial of Twenty Regicides. (1660). P. 39.
Arcanum neque tu scrutaveris ullius unquam, commissumve teges et vino tortus et ira.
Never inquire into another man’s secret; but conceal that which is intrusted to you, though pressed both by wine and anger to reveal it.
Horace—Epistles. I. 18. 37.
There is a skeleton on every house.
Saying from story in Italian Tales of Humour, Gallantry and Romance.
L’on confie son secret dans l’amitié, mais il échappe dans l’amour.
We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in love.
La Bruyère—Les Caractères. IV.
Toute révélation d’un secret est la faute de celui qui l’a confié.
When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.
La Bruyère—Les Caractères. V.
Rien ne pèse tant qu’un secret:
Le porter loin est difficile aux dames;
Et je sais même sur ce fait
Bon nombre d’hommes que sont femmes.
Nothing is so oppressive as a secret: women find it difficult to keep one long; and I know a goodly number of men who are women in this regard.
La Fontaine—Fables. VIII. 6.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 90.
Vitæ poscænia celant.
Men conceal the past scenes of their lives.
Lucretius—Re Rerum Natura. IV. 1,182.
Nothing is secret which shall not be made manifest.
Luke. VIII. 17.
I have play’d the fool, the gross fool, to believe
The bosom of a friend will hold a secret
Mine own could not contain.
Massinger—Unnatural Combat. Act V. Sc. 2.
A secret at home is like rocks under tide.
D. M. Mulock—Magnus and Morna. Sc. 2.
Wer den kleinsten Theil eines Geheimnisses hingibt, hat den andern nicht mehr in der Gewalt.
He who gives up the smallest part of a secret has the rest no longer in his power.
Jean Paul Richter—Titon. Zykel 123.
Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon.
I Samuel. I. 20.
Alium silere quod voles, primus sile.
If you wish another to keep your secret, first keep it yourself.
Seneca—Hippolytus. 876. Also St. Martin of Braga.
Latere semper patere, quod latuit diu.
Leave in concealment what has long been concealed.
Seneca—Œdipus. 826.
If you have hitherto conceal’d this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still.
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 249.
But that I am forbid,
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 13.
Two may keep counsel, putting one away.
Romeo and Juliet. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 209.
Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.
Titus Andronicus. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 144.
Under the rose, since here are none but friends,
(To own the truth) we have some private ends.
Swift—Epilogue to a Benefit Play for the Distressed Weavers.
Miserum est tacere cogi, quod cupias loqui.
You are in a pitiable condition when you have to conceal what you wish to tell.
Syrus—Maxims.
Let your left hand turn away what your right hand attracts.
Talmud. Sota. 47.
Tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus.
The secret wound still lives within the breast.
Vergil—Æneid. IV. 67.