Quotes from Isaiah Berlin

The only thing which can be regarded as properly tragic is resistance, resistance on the part of a man to whatever it is that oppresses him.

To realise the relative validity of one's convictions and yet stand for them unflinchingly is what distinguishes a civilised man from a barbarian.

The more we know about the past, the more we know what is not true about the present

Nothing is more comforting than the weaknesses of persons obviously superior to oneself.

The mere existence of alternatives is not . . . enough to make my action free.

To preserve our absolute categories or ideals at the expense of human lives offends equally against the principles of science and of history; it is an attitude found in equal measure on the right and left wings in our days, and is not reconcilable with the principles accepted by those who respect the facts.

That objective truth exists, that it can be discovered, and that life, individual and social, can be lived in its light – this belief is more characteristic of the Russians than of anyone else in the modern world.

Er bestaat geen noodzakelijk verband tussen individuele vrijheid en democratie.

A hedgehog will not make peace with the world. He is not reconciled. He cannot accept that he knows only many things. He seeks to know one big thing, and strives without ceasing to give reality a unifying shape. Foxes settle for what they know and may live happy lives. Hedgehogs will not settle and their lives may not be happy.

History alone – the sum of empirically discoverable data – held the key to the mystery of why what happened happened as it did and not otherwise; and only history, consequently, could throw light on the fundamental ethical problems which obsessed him as they did every Russian thinker in the nineteenth century.

The more I say the more remains to be said … as soon as I speak it becomes quite clear that, no matter how long I speak, new chasms open. No matter what I say I always have to leave three dots at the end. Whatever description I give always opens the doors to something further, something even darker, perhaps, but certainly something which is in principle incapable of being reduced to precise, clear, verifiable, objective prose.

What is a lost battle?... It is a battle one believes one has lost. ...

Kerensky, yes, Kerensky – I think we have to say one of the great wets of history.

Il nazionalismo non è la consapevolezza della realtà del carattere nazionale, né l'esserne fieri: significa credere nella missione unica della propria nazione, ritenuta intrinsecamente superiore agli scopi o atttibuti di tutto ciò che è fuori di essa.

I più celebrati utopisti dei tempi moderni... offrono un quadro pressochè statico degli attributi essenziali dell'uomo e, di conseguenza, una descrizione altrettanto statica della società perfetta ritenuta raggiungibile. Con ciò essi ignorano il carattere degli uomini in quanto esseri che si autotrasformano, che sono capaci di libere scelte - entro i limiti imposti dalla natura e dalla storia - fra scopi contrastanti e reciprocamente incompatibili.

Beati coloro che accettano senza discutere la disciplina in cui vivono, che obbediscono liberamente agli ordini dei capi...o coloro che sono pervenuti, per vie proprie, a convinzioni chiare e incrollabili...Coloro che riposano su questi comodi letti dogmatici sono vittime di forme di miopia autoindotta e portano paraocchi che possono anche dare l'appagamento, ma non certo la comprensione di cosa significa essere uomo.

Reconoce que si la libertad para los poderosos y los inteligentes significa la explotación de los débiles y menos talentosos, entonces habrá que limitar la libertad de los poderosos y los inteligentes.

No author who has ever lived has shown such powers of insight into the variety of life - the differences, the contrasts, the collisions of persons and things and situations, each apprehended in its absolute uniqueness and conveyed with a degree of directness and a precision of concrete imagery to be found in no other writer

Berlin llamó simple charlatanería a esta proposición. Si la libertad positiva es un ideal válido, entonces, ¿qué defensa hay contra la afirmación marxista de que el Estado tiene el derecho de infligir terribles castigos a quienes se oponen a su poder de obligar a las personas a actuar contra lo que desean hacer, puesto que deben contribuir al bienestar de la masa de la población?

Creer en el determinismo entrañaría una aterradora pérdida de los conceptos con que discutimos la moral, por ejemplo, el elogio, la censura, el lamento o el perdón.

Unless there is some point at which you are prepared to fight against whatever odds, and whatever the threat may be, not merely to yourself, but to anybody, all principles become flexible, all codes melt, and all ends in themselves for which we live disappear.

Immanuel Kant, un uomo lontanissimo dall'irrazionalismo, osservò una volta che "dal legno storto dell'umanità non si è mai cavata una cosa diritta". È questo il motivo per cui nessuna soluzione perfetta è possibile nelle cose umane - non già soltanto in pratica, ma in linea di principio - e ogni serio tentativo di metterla in atto è destinato con ogni probabilità a produrre sofferenza, delusione e fallimento.

las ciencias naturales no eran el paradigma del conocimiento.

Esta manera de considerar la filosofía sostiene la fe de Berlin en el pluralismo.