Carlyle on French Intellectuals

'I have mentioned the answer Thomas Carlyle gave to me when I spoke to him of the severities of the Parisian censorship. "But why are you so angry with it?" he said.  "In compelling the French to keep quiet Napoleon has done them the greatest service.  They have nothing to say, but they want to talk... Napoleon has given them an official justification..."' -- Thomas Carlyle quoted by Alexander Herzen.