"Here our introspection is inapt because we have (unless we are autocrats ourselves) bourgeois conceptions of consumption. The costs of Imelda Marcos’s 3,000 pairs of shoes and other extravagances added up, and the Pyramids, the palace of Versailles, and the Taj Mahal cost even more."
"专制者的国家就是一个以专制者自身为中心的舞台。"
"Fidel Castro’s “mind darted here and there, as new ideas occurred to him. He encountered a bridge and ordered it fixed. His jeep bogged down, and he said ‘Pave the road.’ Drought hit an area of the island and he ordered a new dam. At once.”"