Actually, this saying is ITSELF one of the LEAST “true” statements of all time… as we are all too painfully aware, “
coming clean” to the powers-that-be (i.e., parents, teachers,
policemen, etc.) seldom if ever actually gains or maintains your “freedom”; in fact, usually the **exact opposite** occurs whenever you bravely/penitently reveal your shameful secrets like this --- rather than their extending any significant “charity” (i.e., mercy or forgiveness) to you in response to your trustingly/naively-admitted revelations of past
transgressions, these hypocritical and out-of-touch-with-reality sadists generally do everything they can to
CURTAIL your freedom and otherwise make you as miserable as possible, such as giving you an extended time-out,
grounding you for an outrageously-long period, making you stay in from recess, throwing you
in the slammer for a few days, and so on. So unless there is some serious injustice that your silence is maintaining (such as that an innocent person is being blamed/punished for something that you did), it’s usually wise to follow Will Roger’s advice to “never pass up a good chance to shut up”… contrary to what these authority-figures may try to assure you, they generally do **not** “have your best interests at heart”… about all they actually wanna do is try to soothe their **own** perpetually-gnawing consciences by being overly hard on anyone under their care!
Example:
My conscience was
pricking me after hearing the local minister preaching about “the truth shall
set you free”, and so like the total
dumba** that I am, I went to the police station and admitted to the desk-sergeant about my having swiped a few candy-bars and a couple bottles of soda from the local Circle-K over the past six months; rather than just smiling and praising me for “being a good boy” to be so honest, though, the officer merely slapped da
cuffs on me and made
me cool my heels in jail for 48 hours! Talk about a
letdown --- he didn’t even seem to care about my protests that he was blatantly going against what the preacher had just said was supposed to happen when we admit our sins! I think I’ll sue that minister for misrepresentation and deceitful speech --- I shoulda merely kept my big mouth shut, just as I always have in the past regarding stuff like this! And then he wonders why he has such a hard time gaining or keeping church-members!