The powers of wisdom for a philospher contained by the walls of a prison Sorbonne-educated and the author of almost 30 books, Ramin Jahanbegloo, a philosopher of non-violence in the tradition of Tolstoy and Gandhi, was arrested and detained in Iran's notorious Evin prison in 2006. A petition against his imprisonment was initiated, with Umberto Eco, Jurgen Habermas, and Noam Chomsky among the signatories. International organizations joined in, and media around the world reported his case extensively. Finally, after four months, he was released. In this memoir Jahanbegloo recounts his confinement, his fear for his life, and his concern for the well-being of his family. With cockroaches his only companions, he is sustained by the wisdom of the great philosophers and by his memories of childhood in Tehran and coming-of-age in Paris.