A quotation from Horace

To go on with my advice (that is, supposing
You need advice from me): Be careful about
The things you say and the people to whom you say them.
Avoid the man who asks too many questions.
No question but he’ll be a teller of tales;
An ear that eager can’t keep a secret for long,
And once a word slips out it won’t come back.
 
[Protinus ut moneam (si quid monitoris eges tu)
quid de quoque viro et cui dicas, saepe videto,
percontatorem fugito: nam garrulus idem est,
nec retinent patulae commissa fideliter aures,
et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 18 “To Lollius,” l. 67ff (1.18.67-71) (20 BC) [tr. Ferry (2001)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/20802/

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A quotation from Gracian

   Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate.
   Besides you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.
 
   [Llevar sus cosas con suspensión. La admiración de la novedad es estimación de los aciertos. El jugar a juego descubierto ni es de utilidad ni de gusto. El no declararse luego suspende, y más donde la sublimidad del empleo da objeto a la universal expectación; amaga misterio en todo, y con su misma arcanidad provoca la veneración. Aun en el darse a entender se ha de huir la llaneza, así como ni en el trato se ha de permitir el interior a todos. Es el recatado silencio sagrado de la cordura. La resolución declarada nunca fue estimada; antes se permite a la censura, y si saliere azar, será dos veces infeliz.
   Imítese, pues, el proceder divino para hacer estar a la mira y al desvelo.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 3 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #anticipation #discretion #divineplan #divinepurpose #expectations #ineffability #mystery #obscurity #secrecy #silence #suspense #uncertainty

A quotation from Arendt

Real power begins where secrecy begins.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 1 (1951)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/42155/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #obscurity #power #secrecy #restraint

A quotation from Earl Long

Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink.

Earl Kemp Long (1895-1960) American politician, orator.
(Attributed)

More about this quote: wist.info/long-earl/6396/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #earllong #hueylong #communication #detection #discretion #offtherecord #secrecy #trail #evidence #surveillance

@eff , #TEDIC and #CEJIL Challenge #Secrecy in the Use of #FaceRecognition in #Paraguay

Seeking #transparency and #accountability in Paraguay’s use of facial recognition, EFF, the Association of Technology, Education, Development, Research, Communication (TEDIC), and the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on #HumanRights against the state for arbitrarily denying access to information about its implementation and use of the technology as a tool for mass #surveillance that erodes people’s #privacy #rights.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/eff-tedic-and-cejil-challenge-secrecy-use-face-recognition-paraguay

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

We easily forget our faults when they are known only to ourselves.
 
[Nous oublions aisément nos fautes lorsqu’elles ne sont sues que de nous.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶196 (1665-1678) [tr. Stevens (1939)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

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Short video: https://octade.net/urls/6000_patents.html

In 1998, Stanley Meyer claimed to invent a car that ran on water. Days later, he was dead—and his invention disappeared. But Meyer wasn't the only one. There’s a federal law, still active today, that allows the U.S. government to classify and bury private inventions deemed a “threat.” It's called the Invention Secrecy Act—and it's already been used over 6,000 times.

From Nikola Tesla’s wireless energy to Townsend Brown’s anti-gravity tech to Joseph Papp’s engine that ran on noble gases, history is littered with breakthrough inventors who vanished into obscurity... and whose technologies never made it to the public.

This episode uncovers the case studies, the hidden power of secrecy orders, and the chilling question: What else have they buried?

#patents #USPTO #inventions #inventors #secrecy #laws #Tesla #USGov #Government #NationalSecurity #GagOrders

@academicchatter@a.gup.pe @edutooters@a.gup.pe @infostorm@a.gup.pe