ancient Greek quote

October 23, 2005 10:35 AM

What's that ancient Greek quote that goes something like, Give me a city/village and I can turn it into a great nation?
posted by stopgap to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

I don't recall such an explicit quote, but it sounds sort of like the idea behind Plato's Republic (though Plato's idea's on states and communities in that work weren't intended as viable or likely to happen, so perhaps such a direct statement is a bit unlike its style).
posted by fvw at 11:07 AM on October 23, 2005

Ingatius of Loyola said :"Give me a boy at the age of seven,. and he will be mine forever." Not exactly the same, but similar in sentiment.
posted by boo_radley at 11:17 AM on October 23, 2005

These seem to be conflations of certain lines from Genesis and Exodus:

"Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation." -- Genesis 21:18

At numerous other points, God promises to "make thee a great nation", but that's the closest.
posted by dhartung at 3:53 PM on October 23, 2005

Response by poster: This was definitely a Greek quote. I've looked it up before, but I can't remember the words well enough to track it down with Google now. It wasn't one of the famous writers (e.g. Plato), and it might have even been someone quoted in someone else's work. That is, the original may be lost, but the quote is available somewhere.

It also definitely had to do with turning a town into a great power, not an individual.
posted by stopgap at 4:15 PM on October 23, 2005

Not quite that, but Herodotus says he will write of "small and large cities of men equally. For those which anciently were great—most of them—have become small, while those which in my time were great, previously were small."
posted by nicwolff at 4:18 PM on October 23, 2005

Best answer: Maybe you're thinking of Themistocles, quoted by T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia: "I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state of a small city."
posted by amery at 4:31 PM on October 23, 2005

Response by poster: Found it:

From Francis Bacon's essay, Of the True GREATNESS OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES

THE speech of Themistocles the Athenian, which was haughty and arrogant, in taking so much to himself, had been a grave and wise observation and censure, applied at large to others. Desired at a feast to touch a lute, he said, He could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town, a great city.

That's the original quote I was looking for. Here's what was probably Bacon's source, Plutarch's Life of Themistocles:

And thus afterwards, when in company where people engaged themselves in what are commonly thought the liberal and elegant amusements, he was obliged to defend himself against the observations of those who considered themselves highly accomplished, by the somewhat arrogant retort, that he certainly could not make use of any stringed instrument, could only, were a small and obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious.

And on preview, amery had it. Now that I've been reminded, I'm pretty sure I first heard the quote in Lawrence of Arabia.
posted by stopgap at 4:37 PM on October 23, 2005