Greece

Greece or Hellas, officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [eliniˈki ðimokraˈtia]), is a country and state in southeastern Europe. Situated on the southern end of the Balkan peninsula, Greece has land borders with Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilisation of ancient Greece, generally considered the cradle of western civilization. As such, it is the birthplace of Democracy, western philosophy, the Olympic Games, western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles and western drama, including tragedy and comedy.

• Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Hellas and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you.
  • Alexander the Great, letter to Darius III of Persia in response to a truce plea, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian, Book II 14, 4; translated as Anabasis of Alexander by P. A. Brunt, for the Loeb Classical Library

• From now on I will call our esteemed EU partner "the former Ottoman possession of Greece".
  • David Cameron, "The Macedonian job" (10 September 2003), David Cameron Diaries, United Kingdom: The Guardian

• And the hairy he-goat [stands for] the king of Greece; and as for the great horn that was between its eyes, it [stands for] the first king. And that one having been broken, so that there were four that finally stood up instead of it, there are four kingdoms from [his] nation that will stand up, but not with his power.
  • Daniel 8:21,22 (NWT)

• Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kowtow before any United States proconsul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.
  • Andrei Gromyko, New York Herald Tribune (30 June 1953).

• Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio.
• Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium.
• Horace, Book II, epistle i, lines 156–157

• Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good. We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mister Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long.
  • Lyndon Baines Johnson, comment to the Greek ambassador to the United States, Alexander Matsas, over the Cypriot issue (June 1964). As quoted in I Should Have Died (1977) by Philip Deane, pp. 113-114.

• Who governs this country?
  • Constantinos Karamanlis after Grigoris Lambrakis' murder in 1963. In Oriotheteses, Roes publications, 1986

• Hellas has been transformed to an endless bedlam.
  • Constantinos Karamanlis, during the crisis of 1989 and the political polarisation of the era.

• The same, yet not the same — her face
  Has still that Grecian line ;
  The sculptured perfectness whose grace
  Has long been held divine.
  • Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Amulet, 1831 (1830), 'The Legacy'

• Ancient of days! august Athena! where,
  Where are thy men of might? thy grand in soul?
  Gone—glimmering through the dream of things that were;
  First in the race that led to glory's goal,
  They won, and pass'd away—Is this the whole?
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II (1812), Stanza 2, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 45.

• Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
  and eloquence.
  • John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book IV, line 240, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 45.

• The mention of Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is capable.
  • James Monroe, message to Congress (December 1822).

• The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time that they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind.
  • Thomas Paine, The Crisis No. V (1778)

• It’s my hope and ambition that Aenos International Dark Sky Park will be the most important step of the new effort by the dark sky movement to preserve the dark skies of Greece for the generations to come.
  • Andreas Papalambrou, President of the Greek chapter of DarkSky International, as quoted in "Aenos National Park named first International Dark Sky Park in Greece" (June 9, 2023)

• Hellas belongs to the Hellenes.
  • Main political motto of Andreas Papandreou.

• From the sacred bones of the Hellenes arisen, and valiant again as you once were, hail! Oh hail, Liberty!
  • Dionýsios Solomós, "Hymn to Liberty" (1823).

• Hellas' destiny is to live, and She shall live.
  • Charilaos Trikoupis' speech in the Parliament (2 November 1885)

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 342.

• Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
  Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime,
  Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,
  Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?
  • Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos (1813), Canto I.

• Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!
  Immortal, though no more; though fallen great!
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II (1812), Stanza 73.

• The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
  Where burning Sappho loved and sung.
  Where grew the arts of war and peace, —
  Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
  Eternal summer gilds them yet,
  But all, except their sun, is set.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto III, Stanza 86.

• Such is the aspect of this shore;
  "Tis Greece, but living Greece no more!
  So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
  We start, for soul is wanting there.
  • Lord Byron, The Giaour (1813), line 90.

• Greeks
• Greek language
• Greek proverbs
• Greek myths
• Art in ancient Greece