Sarah Bakewell

As history has repeatedly suggested, nothing is more effective for demolishing traditional legal protections than the combined claims that a crime is uniquely dangerous, and that those behind it have exceptional powers of resistance. [On witchburning in France during the 16th Century.]

He blushed to see other Frenchmen overcome with joy whenever they met a compatriot abroad. The would fall on each other, cluster in a raucous group, and pass whole evenings complaining about the barbarity of the locals. These were the few who actually noticed that locals did things differently. Others managed to travel so __overed and wrapped in a taciturn and incommunicative prudence, defending themselves from the contagion of an unknown atmosphere_ that they noticed nothing at all.

Ideas are interesting, but people are vastly more so.