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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment.

Faction is the greatest evil and the most common danger. "Faction" is the conventional English translation of the Greek stasis, one of the most remarkable words to be found in any language.

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

In the western world today everyone is a democrat.

Many people make the mistake of saving money by wasting time.

Our hearts and imaginations need to dance and play if we are to live awake

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation hard work learning from failure.

Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.

What you see is what you see.

Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity.

Developing compassion and wisdom and helping those in need is the true meaning of life.

When one 'we' gets to determine standards for all 'we's' then some 'we's' are in trouble.

Those who constantly try to impress others will quickly depress themselves.

The Right of all members of society to form their own beliefs and communicate them freely to others must be regarded as an essential principle of a democratically organized society.