No secrets. Seneca, Epistles 5.43

Seneca explains to Lucilius that there is no such thing as securing all information perfectly. People will know the things you are doing, and even if they don't, you will. You are people, too. Don't make the mistake of living in hiding from all the world, including yourself. If something about your conduct shames you, confront it, fix it, and move on.


Quomodo hoc ad me pervenerit quaeris, quis mihi id te cogitare narraverit quod tu nulli narraveras? Is qui scit plurimum, rumor. Quid ergo? inquis tantus sum ut possim excitare rumorem? Non est quod te ad hunc locum respiciens metiaris: ad istum respice in quo moraris. Quidquid inter vicina eminet magnum est illic ubi eminet; nam magnitudo non habet modum certum: comparatio illam aut tollit aut deprimit. Navis quae in flumine magna est in mari parvula est; gubernaculum quod alteri navi magnum alteri exiguum est. Tu nunc in provincia, licet contemnas ipse te, magnus es. Quid agas, quemadmodum cenes, quemadmodum dormias, quaeritur, scitur: eo tibi diligentius vivendum est. Tunc autem felicem esse te iudica cum poteris in publico vivere, cum te parietes tui tegent, non abscondent, quos plerumque circumdatos nobis iudicamus non ut tutius vivamus, sed ut peccemus occultius. Rem dicam ex qua mores aestimes nostros: vix quemquam invenies qui possit aperto ostio vivere. Ianitores conscientia nostra, non superbia opposuit: sic vivimus ut deprendi sit subito aspici. Quid autem prodest recondere se et oculos hominum auresque vitare? Bona conscientia turbam advocat, mala etiam in solitudine anxia atque sollicita est. Si honesta sunt quae facis, omnes sciant; si turpia, quid refert neminem scire cum tu scias? O te miserum si contemnis hunc testem! Vale.


You ask how I received your unpublished news? What messenger brought me the tale you told to none? I had it from the one who knows most of all: rumor. “What?” you say. “Am I become so important that I can rouse rumor?” It isn't right to measure your significance by looking back here, to your point of origin: look rather to the place you now dwell. Whatever stands out in its local neighborhood is great there. Importance thus has no fixed measure, or gauge: comparison destroys or at least diminishes it. The ship that looms large in a river becomes small at sea; a rudder huge on one ship is small on another. Off in your province, away from the capital, you are great, though not to yourself. What you do, how you dine, how you sleep: these are objects of common inquiry, and commonly known. You must live all the more carefully, on this account. Consider that you will be happy only when you can live in public, since the walls of your home will only cover you from the weather, not hide you away from prying eyes. Wretched walls, which we most often want round us not to keep our lives safer, but to keep our sins more secret. Let me state plainly the condition in which you find our character: you shall hardly discover anyone who can live with open doors. We live in such fashion that being suddenly or unexpectedly seen is the same as being arrested, seized and held down. It is our conscience, rather than our pride, that has made us put watchmen on the doors. What is the point of hiding yourself away, shunning the eyes and ears of your fellowmen? The good conscience summons a crowd cheerfully, but the bad one is anxious and worried even in isolation. If you are doing worthy work, let everyone know. If you aren't, why does it matter that nobody else knows the shame you already feel? Miserable indeed your life shall be, if you despise its nearest witness! Farewell.