Loose Lips Sink Ships: “The greatest secrecy is to be found in matters pertaining to things known to very few, and in the domain of things which are known to everyone and which consequently make no impression upon his mind.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513). “All secrets are trivial when they get around.” (Francis Bacon, Essays). “For where a secret may be hidden, and remain hidden, where an impediment only may be in the way, and not come to knowledge, and no one be the better or worse, there the state of man is most happy and secure.” (John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding). “Nothing is so securely hidden as the crimes of the governors. When they become known they tend to strengthen people’s trust in their rulers, which enables them to secure their power.” (Cicero). Taken from Machiavelli’s Discourses, Book One: “It is impossible for this reason, since as they [the masses] take no interest in anything that does not directly concern them, no matter what precautions are taken, they cannot be reached through the imagination, unless it be done under such forms as interest them. It is better to have them believe that you are intending good to them than that you have some bad design, and so lead them astray; for if they believe the former, they will in any way serve you when their own advantage is not concerned, and in this way you will be able to do many things that will have a great effect.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I, 1, 10) “It is impossible to discover new things or to alter them in case they are considered bad. It is well to keep oneself always in readiness to give up all and any opinion rather than be corrupted by flattery. The man who is forced by necessities to obey the opinion of others without discussion is the slave who cannot be freed without trouble, and it is better to die free than to live in slavery.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I, 15). “When they have learned the laws of a state, they make them their own, as if they were born with them. So they who are accustomed to the civil and military orders have neither need of a teacher, or a lawgiver, or a doctor. Nature provides for them. For there are so many methods in everything, such as reason directs, that without books or instructors anyone can find them out; and when they are once found out, they acquire the habit of acting well or ill by experience or by mere impulse. And because men who are not used to these ways cannot by any instruction learn them, they perish in the multitude and are called barbarians, being without experience in the civil order. And so whoever is to found or to restore a state must be of a nature patient and calm, one that does not lose temper when contradicted, and is endowed with experience, for these qualities are needed in a legislator.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I, 26). “The first rule to be observed in counseling princes or republics is to conceal their faults, and to place their virtues before the eyes of the world. For no one who is not disliked can obtain power or keep it if once it is obtained; and one who is always in the public eye cannot conceal his vices.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I, 19) “In the new system that I shall lay before the princes, I shall tell them that they have no other alternative but to follow my advice or have to put up with it in silence. I have noted their weakness and have had it constantly in mind to keep it secret, never to make use of their fear. I shall keep up my good relations with them as long as they seem likely to preserve the advantages that they have won. For men are always more influenced by present convenience and utility than by laws of morality, which have little effect on the crowd. So it has seemed best to me to show them the way of the better by keeping them in ignorance of what I know to be bad.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I, 28) “A Prince who has regard for his own interests and for those of the people under him cannot be wrong in making himself feared or beloved, for by means of fear and love his power will be safe; and by means of fear and respect it will increase. Nor can he be wrong in using religion and morality as instruments with which to acquire goodwill, since in this way he can have the credit of fulfilling the requirements of both.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, 5). “The man who governs a city or a principality must be either able or very lucky if he wants to have followers. He must know how to make himself feared and loved; and he must have enough of the first to make them forget the first, and of the second so as to be followed by many.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, 6). “If these ways are considered dishonorable, there is no need for others to be found.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, 7) “We are sometimes induced to do certain things because we wish to do them, but they are not done through love for them; they are done to flatter someone or to obtain a benefit; so that when they are no longer necessary, the work that was done in accordance with them is thrown away and not kept, because it was not done from love for it. But the work that is done out of love is a work that can never be thrown away, because it has no other result than to please one, and because one takes care to carry it on in secret. We see the proof of this every day in the conduct of the men who are governed by love, who in the midst of a very long peace continue to work at it with more pleasure than ever and they have no other end but to continue to serve their sovereign faithfully. But on the contrary the men who have been forced into a situation do not care about it, because having been forced into it they have given their approval and are, if anything, opposed to it. Therefore they work less diligently than those who are governed by love.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, 13). “A way of dissembling which may be followed by whoever thinks it expedient to do so is to profess one’s hatred to bad men and, above all, to praise good ones; in this way one will win those who are disinclined to follow because they do not trust you and do not fear them. And because men are more readily misled by their affection and confidence in those who do not love them, there is no doubt that it is far better to show them love rather than hatred. If men are afraid of a ruler, the way of using them is to avoid scaring them with threats, and rather to make them like you through showing them how useful and advantageous it is to follow your orders, so as to make them desire to please you. He who will be in a position to do this will be able with his fortune and with his forces to win the entire world, while another, less successful, will be able with the resources he has to avoid losing his own property.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, 20). “One of the ways of acquiring power and keeping it is to acquire it and keep it with the affections of men; and men do not feel any affection for you if you have them neither in fear nor in love. Thus one who would acquire and keep power, besides having the forces necessary for it, ought to have in his power the persons who have affection for him.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, 21). “Amongst those who profess religion one must be very much on one’s guard with the leaders, for as soon as it is known that one has any worldly or religious motive for anything, it will always be believed that one acts out of interest. Those who follow religion out of zeal are easily deceived into believing that it is a holy thing; but the leaders will very easily make them understand that such a religion can be used for their own benefit.” (Machiavelli, Discourses, Book III, 15). “A prince cannot live in peace nor maintain his authority so long as men do not love him. Such is the foundation