From the book "The Breakdown of Nations"

"the overwhelming majority of the creators our our civilziation were the sons and daughters of little states. And it is for the same reason that, whenvver productive small-state regions were united and moulded into the formidable frame of great powers, they ceased to be centres of culture."

"Culture is the produce not of peoples but of individuals, and, as we have seen, creative individuals cannot flourish in the consuming atmosphere of large powers."

"Having the choice between a great tradition of culture and great rradition of aggressiveness they chose, as every great power does, the latter."