Discretion Quotes

Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy.

— Christine Keeler

An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit.

— American Proverb

Discretion is the better part of valor.

— Anonymous

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

— Lytton Strachey

“Discretion’s the better part of valor,”

— Clive Barker

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

— Francis Bacon

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.

— John Selden

Open mouth, change feet.

— Rock Cowles

Silence, maiden; thy tongue outruns thy discretion.

— Anonymous

The rest is a mere matter of detail, to be settled with judgment, discretion, and caution.

— John Griffin Carlisle

Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any.

— Duke of Wellington

Middle age is when the best exercise is one of discretion.

— Laurence J. Peter

In few people is discretion stronger than the desire to tell a good story.

— Murasaki Shikibu

The only greater [evil] than separation... [is] living under a government of discretion.

— Thomas Jefferson

Discretion is deadly to genius; ruinous to talent.

— Emile M. Cioran

You may give give a man office, but you cannot give him discretion

— Benjamin Franklin

A 'Globe' examination found that Boston police officers exercise broad discretion when deciding whether to issue a ticket.

— Bill Dedman

If there's one thing I don't look for in a maid, it's discretion. Except with my own secrets, of course.

— Julian Fellowes

There was great difference in persons; and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always without it.

— Benjamin Franklin

Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict…

— Michelle Alexander

And this vague little smile is my all purpose expression the meaning of which I will leave to your discretion.

— Ani DiFranco

Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions.

— William O. Douglas

I think that sometimes the most intelligent things that prosecutors do is when they exercise their discretion not to go forward with…

— Rudy Giuliani

My superpower would be telepathy. And I would by necessity need to use it with discretion, not all the time.

— Scott Derrickson

But cool and candid people will at once reflect, that the purest of human blessings must have a portion of alloy in…

— James Madison

My son, by all means desist from kicking the venerable and enlightened Vizier: for as a costly jewel retains its value even…

— Anonymous

Churchill knew instinctively what was wrong with communism - that it repressed liberty; that it replaced individual discretion with state control; that…

— Boris Johnson

I see and hear daily that you of the Clergy preach one against another, teach one contrary to another, inveigh one against…

— Henry VIII of England

“Use Discretion & Good Judgment. Don't share your most embarrassing moments with public exposure. Doing what is right is not always easy…

— Susan C. Young

Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life…

— Henri Frederic Amiel

Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of…

— Edward Gibbon

Universities are filled with poets and novelists conducting demure and careful lives in imitation of Eliot and Forster and those others who…

— Gore Vidal

For instance, I never complained that my birthday was overlooked; people were even surprised, with a touch of admiration, by my discretion…

— Albert Camus

We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our…

— David Rockefeller

I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of…

— Don Mattrick

We believe we are entitled to the gift of the Holy Ghost in extent according to the discretion and wisdom of God…

— Brigham Young

While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals,…

— Pope Benedict XVI

Katy was neither a Methodist nor a Masochist. She was a goddess and the silence of goddesses is genuinely golden. None of…

— Aldous Huxley

It may not be improper, however, to remark two consequences, evidently flowing from an extension of the federal power to every subject…

— James Madison

The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited,…

— Milton Friedman