Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.
Isaiah BerlinRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that human nature is constant across time and space, and challenges the belief that it can be altered by societal or individual changes.
Isaiah Berlin's quote reflects on the idea that human nature remains fundamentally similar throughout history and across cultures, implying that there are inherent traits and behaviors that are universal to all people. He emphasizes that this view—that human nature adheres to unchanging laws—is a bold notion, and only a few courageous thinkers have dared to scrutinize or disagree with it. This invites a deeper discussion on whether human behavior is shaped more by immutable characteristics or by changing societal influences.
Themes
Human NatureEternal LawsBold ThinkersPhilosophyHuman Behavior
In practice
Example use cases
In an academic seminar discussing the nature of humanity.
More from Isaiah Berlin
All quotes →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.
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All central beliefs on human matters spring from a personal predicament.
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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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Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.
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Blow the candle out, I don't need to see what my thoughts look like.
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