PRIVACY QUOTES III
quotations about privacy
For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men? My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
Demean thyself more warily in thy study than in the street; if thy public actions have a hundred witnesses, thy private have a thousand. The multitude looks but upon thy actions; thy conscience looks into them.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridion Institutions
There is no such thing as privacy anymore; there is secrecy.
RICH HERSH
attributed, Instagram
There is a privacy in every man's conduct that policy should teach him to retain.
NORMAN MACDONALD
attributed, Day's Collacon
Intimacy is an important part of a happy relationship, but so is a healthy respect for each other's privacy.
LESLIE BECKER-PHELPS
"How Much Privacy Is Good for a Relationship?", WebMD, June 1, 2016
Privacy is no longer a condition of American life, and is likely in the future to be something that only the rich will be able to purchase.
LEE RAINIE
"Making Information Pay: Is Privacy Becoming a Commodity?", Publishers Weekly, May 27, 2016
All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life
The privacy that older generations once enjoyed is now the stuff of nostalgia. Younger people have a different understanding of what it entails. Those who grew up being able to stay in constant touch with their friends have come of age and are reshaping the world accordingly. We live in times when a personal relationship can be jettisoned because a digital message goes unanswered for a few minutes too long, where couples announce their decisions to divorce on Instagram.
EDITOR
The Nation, May 28, 2016
In our time, the symbol of state intrusion into the private life is the mandatory urine test.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.
WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS
dissenting opinion, Osborn v. United States, 1966
All violations of essential privacy are brutalizing.
KATHARINE FULLERTON GEROULD
Modes and Morals
Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things in.
PAUL MCMULLAN
statement to the Leveson Inquiry, November 29, 2011
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
AYN RAND
The Fountainhead
The empowerment given ordinary citizens by the social media is testing the limits of just how much personal privacy can be chipped away. The digital revolution is fuelling a competition that not long ago was the exclusive territory of the professional news media. And when it comes to being the first to report a story, "healthy competition" can turn nasty in a hurry.
EDITOR
The Nation, May 28, 2016