Moses I. Finley quotes

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 achieves the full potentiality of his nature. (Moses I. 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 many different responses to this observation, though mutually incompatible, all share the belief that democracy is the best form of political organization. View quote
Moses I. Finley
Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment. View quote
Moses I. 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 been introduced had there been no Athenian empire. View quote
Moses I. Finley
In the western world today everyone is a democrat. View quote
Moses I. Finley
If I had to choose one which best characterized the condition of being a political leader in Athens, the word would be "tension." View quote
Moses I. Finley
Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of the electorate in western democracies. View quote
Moses I. Finley
Ideal goals are a menace in themselves, as much in more modern philosophers as in Plato. View quote
Moses I. Finley
A genuinely political society, in which discussion and debate are an essential technique, is a society full of risks. View quote
Moses I. 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 a direct and immediate relationship with their constituents, and therefore under more and direct and immediate control. View quote
Moses I. Finley
The Athenians made mistakes. Which governmental system has not? The familiar game of condemning Athens for not having lived to some ideal of perfection is a stultifying approach. (Moses I. Finley)
What is good for a country? What is the national interest? View quote
Moses I. Finley
From Aristophanes to Aristotle, the attack on the demagogues always falls back on the one central question: in whose interest does the the leader lead? View quote
Moses I. Finley
And nothing inhibited fourth-century orators in the assembly and the law-courts from indulging in savage slander, without a touch of humour in it. View quote
Moses I. Finley
for it is conflict combined with consent, not consent alone, which preserves democracy from eroding into oligarchy. View quote
Moses I. Finley
In Rome much pamphleteering took the form of verses and songs, circulated orally, or of libelli, defamatory placards or broadsheets. View quote
Moses I. Finley