We are freer than we think.

Political power goes much deeper than one suspects; there are centres and invisible, little-known points of support; its true resistance, its true solidity is perhaps where one doesn't expect it.

Are the prisons overpopulated, or is the population over-imprisoned ?

it is the certainty of being punished and not the horrifying spectacle of public punishment that must discourage crime

Nature, keeping only useless secrets, had placed within reach and in sight of human beings the things it was necessary for them to know.

Matthey, a Geneva physician very close to Rousseau's influence, formulates the prospect for all men of reason: 'Do not glory in your state, if you are wise and civilized men; an instant suffices to disturb and annihilate that supposed wisdom of which you are so proud; an unexpected event, a sharp and sudden emotion of the soul will abruptly change the most reasonable and intelligent man into a raving idiot.

In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure and the police take the place of pirates.