# Quote — Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed

> The general practice is for the secret to be confided only to an equally trustworthy friend, the same conditions being imposed on him. And so from trustworthy friend to trustworthy friend the secret goes moving on round that immense chain, until finally it reaches the ears of just the very person or persons whom the first talker had expressly intended it never should reach.

- Author: [Alessandro Manzoni](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alessandro-manzoni.md)
- Book: [The Betrothed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alessandro-manzoni/the-betrothed.md)
- Page: 155
- Original (it): Ma la pratica generale ha voluto che [la condizione di non dir nulla a nessuno] obblighi soltanto a non confidare il segreto che ad un amico egualmente fidato, e imponendogli la condizione medesima. Così d'amico fidato in amico fidato, il segreto gira e gira per quella immensa catena, tanto che giunge all'orecchio di colui o di coloro a cui il primo che ha parlato intendeva appunto di non lasciarlo giunger mai.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alessandro_Manzoni#The_Betrothed_(1827%3B_1842)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/alessandro-manzoni/the-betrothed/the-general-practice

## More from this book

> A lawyer must be told things frankly; then it's up to us to muddle them up.

p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alessandro-manzoni/the-betrothed/a-lawyer-must.md)

> But what is history, Don Ferrante would often say, without politics? A guide who walks on and on with no one following to learn the road, so that his every step is wasted; just as politics without history is like a man who walks along without a guide.

p. 374 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alessandro-manzoni/the-betrothed/but-what-is-history.md)

> It is one of the advantages of this world that people can hate and be hated without knowing each other.

p. 44 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alessandro-manzoni/the-betrothed/it-is-one.md)