"I'll paraphrase my opinion.

To be anything at all you must begin by being everything.

It is quite certain that a reform of this service is needed; for on my word of honor, the State robs the poor officials as much as the officials rob the State in the matter of hours.
But why is it that we idle as we do?
because they pay us too little; and the reason of that is we are too many for the work, and your late chief, the virtuous Rabourdin, saw all this plainly.

That great administrator,--for he was that, gentlemen,--saw what the thing is coming to, the thing that these idiots call the 'working of our admirable institutions.' The chamber will want before long to administrate, and the administrators will want to legislate.

The government will try to administrate and the administrators will want to govern, and so it will go on.