5

What is the origin of the phrase

You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.

I see it occasionally bounced around, sometimes as an authoritarian slogan. Brief research indicates some think it was coined by Goebbels, some by Orwell.

Is the true origin known?

|improve this question
  • 2
    What makes you thing this has a particular "origin"? It is a fairly generic statement that has doubtless been independently uttered countless times throughout history, and not only in English. – tchrist♦ Dec 27 '14 at 21:07
  • 2
    It is an appallingly false platitude. – Hot Licks Dec 28 '14 at 0:07
  • @HotLicks Could be Mark Twain. He reveled in such plain-spoken idiocies. – Wayfaring Stranger Dec 28 '14 at 0:19
7

You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.

The phrase - widely used in discussions of Internet security and uttered by Pius Thicknesse in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - is most commonly attributed to Joseph Goebbels in 1933.

However, there is an earlier precedent. Upton Sinclair used an inverted version in 1918 in The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation:

Not merely was my own mail opened, but the mail of all my relatives and friends—people residing in places as far apart as California and Florida. I recall the bland smile of a government official to whom I complained about this matter: ‘If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.’

|improve this answer
  • 1
    Good find. I suppose 'an earlier precedent' can make sense, though I wouldnlt use it here. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 27 '14 at 23:44
  • The inverted version has a different meaning. – gerrit Nov 4 '15 at 19:17

protected by tchrist♦ Feb 12 '16 at 12:58

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).

Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.