"There is nothing we like to communicate to others as much as the seal of secrecy together with what lies under it"
About this Quote
Nietzsche spots a perverse social truth: secrecy isn’t the opposite of communication, it’s one of its most seductive forms. The “seal” is doing double duty. It implies restraint, discretion, even nobility - the performance of self-control. But it also functions as a spotlight. To hint that you know something “under it” is to advertise access, to cultivate demand, to make other people lean in.
The intent is diagnostic, not moralizing. Nietzsche isn’t warning about loose lips so much as dissecting why humans love the posture of confidentiality. A shared secret manufactures intimacy on the cheap: it creates an instant “we” against an implied “they.” At the same time, it flatters the speaker as someone entrusted with hidden knowledge. The content matters less than the aura. We don’t just want to tell; we want to be seen as the kind of person who could tell, but won’t - except, of course, we just did.
The subtext is classic Nietzschean suspicion toward elevated motives. Even our finest-sounding virtues (discretion, loyalty) can be powered by vanity, domination, and the hunger to rank ourselves. The secret becomes a micro-technique of power: you control attention by controlling access.
Contextually, this sits comfortably inside Nietzsche’s broader project of unmasking. He reads culture as a theater of drives disguised as ideals - morality, truth, piety. Here, the “seal of secrecy” is another mask: an ethical-looking cover for a very human thrill, the pleasure of withholding while simultaneously showing off that there is something to withhold.
The intent is diagnostic, not moralizing. Nietzsche isn’t warning about loose lips so much as dissecting why humans love the posture of confidentiality. A shared secret manufactures intimacy on the cheap: it creates an instant “we” against an implied “they.” At the same time, it flatters the speaker as someone entrusted with hidden knowledge. The content matters less than the aura. We don’t just want to tell; we want to be seen as the kind of person who could tell, but won’t - except, of course, we just did.
The subtext is classic Nietzschean suspicion toward elevated motives. Even our finest-sounding virtues (discretion, loyalty) can be powered by vanity, domination, and the hunger to rank ourselves. The secret becomes a micro-technique of power: you control attention by controlling access.
Contextually, this sits comfortably inside Nietzsche’s broader project of unmasking. He reads culture as a theater of drives disguised as ideals - morality, truth, piety. Here, the “seal of secrecy” is another mask: an ethical-looking cover for a very human thrill, the pleasure of withholding while simultaneously showing off that there is something to withhold.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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