I think this answer to a statement by Satoshi in the cryptography mailing list is one of the most interesting and revealing things he's said:
The original statement:
You will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography.
Satoshi's answer:
Yes, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.
source: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg09971.html
However, it seems like the original statement in the mailing list that Satoshi is replying to seems to have been made off of the mailing list thus the full message and the identity of the person is unknown. Who was this person and what was his full message?