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

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

- 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 many diff…

- 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 achieves the full potentiali…

- 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

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

- Moses Finley

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

- Moses Finley

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

- Moses Finley