Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.
Georg SimmelRead
Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Secrecy creates a buildup of tension that is resolved when the secret is revealed.
Georg Simmel's quote highlights the inherent tension that secrecy creates in relationships and society. When a secret is kept, the anticipation or anxiety surrounding it grows, and once it is finally disclosed, that buildup is released, often leading to a profound change in dynamics, understanding, or emotions among those involved.
Themes
SecrecyTensionRevelationRelationshipsDynamics
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion on trust in relationships.
More from Georg Simmel
All quotes βMusic and love are the only accomplishments of humanity which do not, in an absolute sense, have to be called attempts with unsuitable means.
Georg SimmelRead
Discretion is nothing other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the intimate contents of life.
Georg SimmelRead
In the immediate as well as the symbolic sense, in the physical as well as the intellectual sense, we are at any moment those who separate the connected, or connect the separate.
Georg SimmelRead
For the division of labor demands from the individual an ever more one-sided accomplishment, and the greatest advance in a one-sided pursuit only too frequently means dearth to the personality of the individual.
Georg SimmelRead
By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.
Georg SimmelRead
Similar quotes
Being young, working class, and black, everything you do is policed. If someone hits you and you hit back, you are aggressive. If you cry, you are weak. You are kind of always pretending to be something.
Daniel KaluuyaRead
In his ignorance of the whole truth, each person maintains his own arrogant point of view.
Gautama BuddhaRead
Sometimes I got my majors mixed up. A number of my fellow religious-studies students - muddled agnostics who didn't know which way was up, who were in the thrall of reason, that fool's gold for the bright - reminded me of the three-toed sloth; and the three-toed sloth, such a beautiful example of the miracle of life, reminded me of God.
Yann MartelRead
Trying to exhaust himself, Vaughan devised an endless almanac of terrifying wounds and insane collisions: The lungs of elderly men punctured by door-handles; the chests of young women impaled on steering-columns; the cheek of handsome youths torn on the chromium latches of quarter-lights. To Vaughan, these wounds formed the key to a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology. The images of these wounds hung in the gallery of his mind, like exhibits in the museum of a slaughterhouse.
J. G. BallardRead
The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.
Mary Mcleod BethuneRead
The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn't.
Joseph L. MankiewiczRead