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.
Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the conflict between freedom and security, illustrating that one group's freedom can threaten another's safety.
Isaiah Berlin's quote conveys the idea that the pursuit of freedom by one group can have dire consequences for another group. In this metaphor, the wolves represent those who seek power and freedom without regard for the safety of others, while the sheep symbolize the innocent and vulnerable individuals who suffer as a result. The quote urges us to consider the ethical implications of freedom and how it often comes at a cost to those who are less powerful.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate about personal liberties versus societal security.
More from Isaiah Berlin
All quotes βAll central beliefs on human matters spring from a personal predicament.
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.
The case against the notion of historical objectivity is like the case against international law, or international morality; that it does not exist.
Utopias have their value -- nothing so wonderfully expands the imaginative horizons of human potentialities -- but as guides to conduct they can prove literally fatal.
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.
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