"If all of the Greek islands were merged with the mainland, it would
be about the size of Alabama; there are 10 million Greeks -- and
perhaps another 4 million living throughout the world, who still think
of themselves as Greek. They are, thanks to their history, magnificent
patriots and nationalists -- and abominable citizens, who deeply
mistrust every government they’ve ever had. Essentially they are
fierce individualists, who mistrust so much whatever government
happens to be in power as the very idea of government. The have almost
no sense of civic responsibility --
Pericles complained about this at length -- and History has never
given them much of a chance to work out a stable system of
government."