"JC Denton: Electronic surveillance hardly inspires reverance. Perhaps fear
              and obedience, but not reverance."
"Morpheus: God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgement and
               punishment. Other sentiments towards them were secondary."
"JC Denton: No one will ever worship a software entity peering at them
              through a camera."
"Morpheus: The human organism always worships. First, it was the Gods, then
              it was fame (the observation and judgement of others), next it will be
              self-aware systems you have built to realise truly omnipresent
              observation and judgement."
"JC Denton: You underestimate humankind's love of freedom."
"Morpheus: The individual desires judgement. Without that desire, the cohesion
             of groups is impossible, and so is civilisation."

"When due process fails us, we really do live in a world of terror."

"Being a soldier isn't just following orders, it's following those orders in the
             service of a higher cause. When that cause is betrayed, we're not
             soldiers anymore - just pieces on a chess board dying for the wrong
             reason."

"When government surveillance and intimidation is called "freedom from
            terrorism" or "liberation from crime", freedom and liberty have become
            words without meanings."

"Isaac: Beer is 15; wine is 120."
"JC Denton: Can I ask you something?"
"Isaac: What do you want to know?"
"JC Denton: Despite all I’ve read about the Triads, I wasn’t prepared to see them
          operating in the open, on the streets, and wearing uniforms. Doesn’t the
          Chinese government care?"
"Isaac: The Chinese leave Hong Kong alone. They barricade the roads to control
          trade to the mainland, but they know how business is done."
"JC Denton: I would think the secret smuggling operations of the Triads would
          disturb the Chinese government."
"Isaac: Maybe the Luminous Path, but China knows that the Red Arrow are business
          owners, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and that they protect the city
          from outside influences."
"JC Denton: You said "outside influences." What does China fear?"
"Isaac: China is the last sovereign country in the world. Authoritarian but willing -
          unlike U.N.-governed countries - to give its people the freedom to do what
          they want.
"JC Denton: As long as they don’t break the law."
"Isaac: Listen to me. This is real freedom, freedom to own property, make a profit,
          make your life. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no
          government. Only financial power."
"JC Denton: Our governments have limited power by design."
"Isaac: Rhetoric- and you believe it! Don’t you know where those slogans come
          from?"
"JC Denton: I give up."
"Isaac: Well-paid researchers - how do you say it? - "think tanks," funded by big
          businesses. What is that? A "think tank"?"
"JC Denton: Hardly as sinister as a dictator, like China’s Premier."
"Isaac: It’s privately-funded propaganda. The Trilateral Commission in the United
          States for instance."
"JC Denton: The separation of powers acknowledges the petty ambitions of individuals;
          that’s its strength."
"Isaac: A system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce
          these same qualities in its leaders."
"JC Denton: Perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature.
"Isaac: The mark of the educated man is the suppression of these qualities in favor
          of better ones. The same is true of civilization."