#secrecy

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state. ↗

— Cardinal Richelieu

#essential #first #secrecy #state

There are many hands touching ballots after a voter drops his ballot into the ballot box. There is no guarantee of ballot secrecy for anyone, which makes the whole system vulnerable to intimidation and bribery. ↗

— Bob Schaffer

#anyone #ballot #ballot box #ballots #box

As opposition leader, [Stephen Harper] wrote in the Montreal Gazette in the year before he came to power: 'Information is the lifeblood of a democracy. Without adequate access to key information about government policies and programs, citizens and parliamentarians cannot make informed decisions and incompetent or corrupt governments can be hidden under a cloak of secrecy.' When he became prime minister, his attitude appeared to undergo a shift of considerable proportions. It often took the Conservatives twice as long as previous governments to handle access requests. Sometimes it took six months to a year. ↗

— Lawrence Martin

#canada #canadian #canadian-government #canadian-politics #censorship

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

— Kate Adie

#democracy #good #information #never #secrecy

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

— Jeremy Bentham

#conspiracy #government #instrument #never #ought

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

— Sissela Bok

#deception #meant #requires #secrecy #while

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

— Niels Bohr

#democracy #dictatorship #openness #secrecy #should

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. ↗

— Sissela Bok

#both #breathing #burden #childhood #confers

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

— Elia Kazan

#exact #exists #facts #hard #hysteria

Very strange things comes to our knowledge in families, miss; bless your heart, what you would think to be phenomenons, quite ... Aye, and even in gen-teel families, in high families, in great families ... and you have no idea ... what games goes on! ↗

— Charles Dickens

#detectives #families #family-life #gentility #hidden-guilt