Democracy Quote by Moses Finley

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

— Moses Finley

Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment.

— Moses Finley

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

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

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

— Moses Finley

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

— Moses Finley

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

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

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

In the western world today everyone is a democrat.

— Moses Finley

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

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