Archibald Butt Quotes

The most secretive White House in modern history has learned the hard way …that it must reveal a pretty steady stream of secrets.

The margin of error when working on the White House staff is zero. Any mistake you make will wind up on the front page of the Washington Post.

The President [George W. Bush] has assembled a very effective White House staff. They do not squabble among themselves, and the do not leak indiscriminately—as opposed to discriminately.

First Ladies have been through a lot by the time their husbands get to the Presidency.

I didn’t e-mail during my Presidency because I was afraid of the Freedom of Information Requests.

It is a secret in the Oxford sense: you may tell it to only one person at a time.

What you would hide from an enemy don't tell a friend.

If my friends don’t know what my plans are, then my enemies will not.

Anything that will be revealed eventually, should be revealed immediately.

Now, boys, let me tell you something. Sometimes you may see me coming out of a room in the White House with a woman. You just remember that it is none of your business.

People in power tend to be not as enthusiastic about open records as they were before they came to power.

It may not have been fair, but it changed history.

Things can’t be kept secret forever.

Three people can keep a secret as long as two of them are dead.

Every servant in the place is Welsh, and not one of them speaks a word of English. There'll be no leaks of news about important political conversations in this place while I am here, on account of some servant's indiscretion!

What happens in the White House stays in the White House.

Working in the White House is a relentlessly demanding responsibility.

There’s no town in the world that has the leaks that come out of this town. [Washington, DC.]

It is not a secret if it is known by three people.

How can we expect others to keep our secrets if we cannot keep them ourselves?

This gentleman feels that all the members of Congress should have access to all the information which is in the hands of officials in the executive branch who deal with foreign affairs. He states that this is so in England and France. I think the gentleman must be mistaken, for it would be "agin" human nature for so many people to know a secret and keep it! Much of the information which comes to officials dealing with foreign affairs is uncorroborated, but valuable as background material. The sources of this information would soon dry up if it became the property of too many people. It seems to me that in foreign affairs, as in all matters of government, one must deal with reality, recognize human nature as it is and set up machinery to deal with real situations, not those which we wish existed.

… it is at home and not in public that one should wash ones dirty linen.

Who ever yet was offered a secret and declined it?

Approved, if done under your assurance that it is not traceable.

The essential traits of a leaker are an abundance of information and a lack of power.