Civilised Quote by Moses Finley

“It is a mark of civilised man that he seeks to understand his traditions, and to criticise them, not to swallow them whole.”

Moses Finley

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Civilised Criticise Culture History Mark Men Tradition Whole

More by Moses Finley

Knowledge for its own sake was meaningless, its mere accumulation a waste of time. Knowledge must lead to understanding.

Moses Finley

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Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment.

Moses Finley

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We must consider not only why the classical theory of democracy appears to be in contradiction with the observed practice, but also why the…

Moses Finley

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Political leaders, lacking documents that could be kept secret (apart from the occasional exception), lacking media they could control, were of necessity brought into…

Moses Finley

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A genuinely political society, in which discussion and debate are an essential technique, is a society full of risks.

Moses Finley

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Ideal goals are a menace in themselves, as much in more modern philosophers as in Plato.

Moses Finley

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What I am arguing, in effect, is that the full democratic system of the second half of the fifth century B.C. would not have…

Moses Finley

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Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of…

Moses Finley

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Faction is the greatest evil and the most common danger. "Faction" is the conventional English translation of the Greek stasis, one of the most…

Moses Finley

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man is by nature designed to live in the polis, the highest form of koinonia, community; that is man's end or goal if he…

Moses Finley

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In the western world today everyone is a democrat.

Moses Finley

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If I had to choose one which best characterized the condition of being a political leader in Athens, the word would be "tension".

Moses Finley

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Explore all 13 Moses Finley quotes

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When we get civilised, I believe children will go by number until they get old enough to choose their own names.

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This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

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The civilised cultures are the most cruel. It's the same with education - often it breeds sadistic forms of cruelty.

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This generation may either be the last to exist in any semblance of a civilised world or that it will be the first to…

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Bombing is not especially inhumane. War itself is inhumane and the bombing plane, which is used to paralyse industry and transport, is a relatively…

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I suffered most inconvenience from the difficulty of getting news from the civilised world down river, from the irregularity of receipt of letters, parcels…

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