It is wrong to say that the people love Athens because she is great. It is the other way around --- Athens is great because the people love her and take part in politics. Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the State as well: even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well-informed on general politics; this is a peculiarity of ours; we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

Pericles
Speech to the Athenians in 450 B.C.