Commissario Brunetti's thoughts on Venice

"He had read enough to know that there were countries whose citizens did not perceive their government as an inimical force, where they believed, instead, that the government existed to serve their needs and respond to their wishes. How would he react if someone he knew were to maintain this to be true here, in this city, in this country? Religious mania would be less convincing proof of mental imbalance."
'Uniform Justice', Donna Leon, copyright 2003