Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Greece is founded on eternal thought rather than war, with its citizens ruling through enduring wisdom.
In plain terms
Greece is built on ideas that last forever, not on fighting.
What can you take from it?
Enduring civilizations are built on thought not war.

Where it applies

  • classical studies
  • national identity debates
  • cultural preservation

Putting it to work

  • promote intellectual heritage
  • value cultural memory
  • study classical history

Questions to consider

  • What foundations truly sustain a nation?
  • How does thought shape cultural identity?

Another view

The quote idealizes Greece as purely intellectual ignoring its historical military conflicts.

More from Percy Bysshe Shelley

  1. Kings are like stars - they rise and set, they have The worship of the world, but no repose.

    Permalink to quote #124
  2. The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn; Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires g…

    Permalink to quote #126
  3. Life may change, but it may fly not; Hope may vanish, but can die not; Truth be veiled, but still it burneth; Love repulsed, - but it returneth!

    Permalink to quote #123

Related quotes

  1. They [the Greeks] were the first Westerners; the spirit of the West, the modern spirit, is a Greek discovery and the place of the Greeks is in the modern world.

    Edith HamiltonEdith Hamilton quote #7
  2. Many clever Babylonians, many clever Egyptians, many clever men at the end of Rome. Can you tell me, in a world that is flagrant with the failures of civilisat…

    Gilbert Keith ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton quote #8
  3. We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their root in Greece.

    Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley quote #122