Benjamin Franklin — "The only way to keep a secret between two is to kill one of them."
The only way to keep a secret between two is to kill one of them.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride."
"For every pound of sand you eat, another shilling's yours to keep."
"Necessity never made a good bargain."
"Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible."
"The working man is fit and fed, and stabs the sluggard in his bed."
About Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Polymath Founding Father, diplomat, and Poor Richard's Almanack author who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Closely associated with John Adams (fellow Founder, Massachusetts statesman) and Thomas Jefferson (fellow Declaration drafter). For an intellectual contrast, see Thomas Hutchinson, last royal governor of colonial Massachusetts — Franklin leaked Hutchinson's loyalist correspondence to Boston in 1772 to inflame revolutionary sentiment — Hutchinson represented the colonial-aristocrat crown-loyalty that Franklin's revolution was organized to dismantle.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
This quote cynically observes that true secrecy is nearly impossible once shared between people. Human nature—gossip, coercion, vanity, or accident—makes confidences leak. The dark humor underscores a practical truth: once information leaves one mind, controlling it becomes exponentially harder with each additional person who knows it. The blunt, violent punchline cuts through polite pretense to state what everyone suspects but rarely admits: secrets and people are both fragile.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin published the original version—'Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead'—in Poor Richard's Almanack (1735), his annual collection of practical wit. As a printer, diplomat, and revolutionary conspirator, he understood that shared secrets become liabilities. Negotiating France's covert alliance with the colonies required extraordinary discretion; a single leak could have ended the revolution. His aphoristic style consistently packaged hard-won political wisdom into memorable, quotable form.
The era
The American Revolution operated in an atmosphere of espionage and betrayal. Colonial patriots were technically committing treason against Britain—exposure meant hanging. Letters were intercepted, loyalist informants embedded in revolutionary circles, and Benedict Arnold's defection proved no one was beyond suspicion. Franklin's diplomatic mission in Paris was shadowed by British spies, including his own secretary Edward Bancroft. In this climate, the observation that secrets rarely survive two keepers was not darkly comic—it was survival doctrine.
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