Daily Inspiration Quote by Sissela Bok

Bok’s line slices cleanly through a lazy moral shortcut: the assumption that anything hidden is automatically dishonest. By conceding the obvious first clause - deception needs secrecy - she earns the right to complicate the second. The structure matters. It’s a philosopher’s judo move: agree with your opponent’s strongest point, then redirect the force toward a sharper distinction.

The subtext is about moral triage. “Secrecy” is a broad social tool: it can shelter the vulnerable (a patient’s diagnosis, a whistleblower’s identity), preserve dignity (private grief), protect fairness (anonymous ballots, juries), or prevent harm (security protocols). Deception, by contrast, is a narrower act with an audience built in: it aims to produce a false belief in someone else. Bok is insisting we judge not the curtain, but what the curtain is for.

Contextually, this sits in her broader project of practical ethics, especially her work on lying and public trust. Modern life runs on asymmetries of information; institutions constantly ask us to tolerate what we can’t see. Bok’s warning cuts both ways: don’t let authorities launder manipulation under the soothing label of “confidentiality,” but don’t flatten every boundary into a scandal, either. The quote is a defense of privacy and discretion against a culture of permanent transparency, without giving liars an escape hatch.

It works because it forces a harder question than “Who’s hiding what?”: “Who benefits from the hiding, and who is being shaped by it?” That’s where ethics stops being a vibe and becomes an audit.