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“Elphinstone perceived flaws in the Afghan character, such as tendencies toward envy, avarice, discord, and revenge. Nevertheless, he saw much to admire, including their “lofty, martial spirit,â€� hospitality, and honesty, as well as their fondness for liberty. “They have also a degree of curiosity,â€� he wrote, “which is a relief to a person habituated to the apathy of the Indians.â€� He found the Afghans apprehensive of cultural assimilation by the Persians and said their sentiments toward that more advanced, if effete, civilization “greatly resemble those which we discovered some years ago towards the French.â€� He noted in addition: “I know no people in Asia who have fewer vices, or are less voluptuous or debauched.â€� But in this initial British examination of the country, Elphinstone summarized its enduring problem: “There is reason to fear that the societies into which the nation is divided, possess within themselves a principle of repulsion and disunion, too strong to be overcome, except by such a force as, while it united the whole into one solid body, would crush and obliterate the features of every one of the parts.”
― Stephen Tanner, Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban

“Until the end of the nineteenth century, this remote region was known as Kafiristan because of its infidel religion. But after the people in those valleys were forcibly converted to Islam the region became known as Nuristan, or the “Land of Light.â€� It is not improbable that descendants of the Greek-Bactrian kingdom, or even of Alexander’s men, live there.”
― Stephen Tanner, Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban