By Themistocles alone, or with very few others, does this saying appear to be approved, which, though Alcaeus formerly had produced, many afterwards claimed: "Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans, make a State; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, there are cities and walls."
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Source, in full
Vol. 2 (ed. Samuel Jebb, 1730), translated by Arthur W. Austin, The Woman and the Queen, &c. (1875) p. 90. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 8th ed. (1883) p. 373, note. Austin also translated the passage into verse
Notes from Wikiquote
Nor porches, theatres, nor stately halls,
Nor senseless equipage, nor lofty walls,
Nor towers of wood or stone, nor workmen's arts,
Compose a State; but men with daring hearts,
Who on themselves rely to meet all calls,
Compose a State,—it needs not other walls! | Compare: "An Ode in Imitation of Alcæus" (trans. William Jones, 1781)