#secret

It is a fundamental principle of American democracy that laws should not be public only when it is convenient for government officials to make them public. They should be public all the time, open to review by adversarial courts, and subject to change by an accountable legislature guided by an informed public. If Americans are not able to learn how their government is interpreting and executing the law then we have effectively eliminated the most important bulwark of our democracy. That’s why, even at the height of the Cold War, when the argument for absolute secrecy was at its zenith, Congress chose to make US surveillance laws public. Without public laws, and public court rulings interpreting those laws, it is impossible to have informed public debate. And when the American people are in the dark, they can’t make fully informed decisions about who should represent them, or protest policies that they disagree with. These are fundamentals. It’s Civics 101. And secret law violates those basic principles. It has no place in America. ↗

— Ron Wyden

#law #national-security #secrets #surveillance #change

The secret to true happiness is a combination of low expectations and insensitivity. ↗

— Olivia Goldsmith

#expectations #happiness #insensitivity #low #low expectations

If the secret of being a bore is to tell all, the secret of pleasing is to say just enough to be - not understood, but divined. ↗

— Remy de Gourmont

#bore #divined #enough #just #pleasing

She watched through the window. Jerry was walking toward the house again. She waited. It seemed to take forever before there was a knock at the door. She stood there a minute as they looked at one another. He was the high school heartthrob she never had the chance to experience. This was the secret date with her parents away that never happened. ↗

— Judith-Victoria Douglas

#knock-on-the-door #secret-date #watched #dating

Secretly, I'm a real big nerd. I'd rather stay home and play Scrabble than go to a Hollywood party, any day of the week. And I love reading about history and watching the Discovery Channel. ↗

— Sprague Grayden

#any #big #channel #day #discovery

Before a secret is told, one can often feel the weight of it in the atmosphere. ↗

— Susan Griffin

#before #feel #often #secret #told

My dog was with me all the time. I talked to my dog. She was my best buddy. I shared all my secrets with her, but I don't think I every really tried jokes out with the dog. ↗

— Cathy Guisewite

#buddy #dog #every #her #i

The secret of a good marriage is forgiving your partner for marrying you in the first place. ↗

— Sacha Guitry

#forgiving #good #good marriage #marriage #marrying

I was very happy being a secretary. I loved working for the government. I was very happy with my life. ↗

— Fawn Hall

#government #happy #i #life #loved

Men who have reached and passed 45, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this. ↗

— Benjamin Haydon

#having #look #men #other #out