Their knowledge and their faculty of observation were extraordinary. By their study of the world the Greeks illuminate not only their own nature but that of all other ancient peoples; without them, and the phillhellenic Romans, there would be no knowledge of past times, for all other nations attended to nothing but themselves, their own citadels, temples and gods.

— Jacob Burckhardt The Greeks and Greek Civilization (1998)

More quotes by Jacob Burckhardt

Judgements on History and Historians (1929)

The Greeks and Greek Civilization (1998)

The Greeks and Greek Civilization (1998)

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