Greek City States

Famous quotes containing the words greek, city and/or states:

    “Certainly for us of the modern world, with its conflicting claims, its entangled interests, distracted by so many sorrows, so many preoccupations, so bewildering an experience, the problem of unity with ourselves in blitheness and repose, is far harder than it was for the Greek within the simple terms of antique life. Yet, not less than ever, the intellect demands completeness, centrality.”
    —Walter Pater (1839–1894)

    “A city built upon mud;
    A culture built upon profit;
    Free speech nipped in the bud,
    The minority always guilty.
    Why should I want to go back
    To you, Ireland, my Ireland?”
    —Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)

    “An ... important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.”
    —John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)