'Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck. It lives on other peoples ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround then that they are often taken by surprise.'
'This tough minded verdict by Donald Horne, central to The Lucky Country, lost its force over time. Speech-makers quote the tagline but not the stinging judgement it introduced. Shorn of irony, criticism became affirmation.' (Introduction)