Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.
Isaiah BerlinRead
Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that while addressing societal problems is important, human existence is also defined by striving towards positive goals.
Isaiah Berlin highlights the dual nature of human life: the necessity of combating injustices and societal issues like poverty, slavery, and ignorance, which can be addressed through reform or revolution. However, he points out that merely fighting against these evils is insufficient for a fulfilling existence; people also thrive by pursuing diverse and often unpredictable positive aspirations that contribute to their individuality and collective experience.
Themes
InjusticePovertySlaveryIgnoranceGoalsReformRevolution
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about social reform.
More from Isaiah Berlin
All quotes →All central beliefs on human matters spring from a personal predicament.
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The underlying assumption that human nature is basically the same at all times, everywhere, and obeys eternal laws beyond human control, is a conception that only a handful of bold thinkers have dared to question.
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The case against the notion of historical objectivity is like the case against international law, or international morality; that it does not exist.
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Utopias have their value -- nothing so wonderfully expands the imaginative horizons of human potentialities -- but as guides to conduct they can prove literally fatal.
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But to manipulate men, to propel them toward goals which you-the social reformers-see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them.
Isaiah BerlinRead
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