Isaiah Berlin Quotes

Latvia, Philosopher
June 6, 1909 – November, 5, 1997.

Sir Isaiah Berlin OM CBE FBA was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas. Although averse to writing, his improvised lectures and talks were recorded and transcribed, with his spoken word being converted by his secretaries into his published essays and books.

When a man speaks of the need for realism one may be sure that this is always the prelude to some bloody deed.

Isaiah Berlin
- Realism
- Deed
- Prelude
Liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or human happiness or a quiet conscience.

Isaiah Berlin

There is no a prior reason for supposing that the truth, when it is discovered, will necessarily prove interesting.

Isaiah Berlin
- Truth
- Interesting
- Prove
Few new truths have ever won their way against the resistance of established ideas save by being overstated.

Isaiah Berlin
- Ideas
- Truths
- Overstated
True knowledge is knowledge of why things are as they are, and not merely what they are.

Isaiah Berlin
Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.

Isaiah Berlin
- Death
- Freedom
- Sheep
Science cannot destroy the consciousness of freedom, without which there is no morality and no art, but it can refute it.

Isaiah Berlin
- Science
- Freedom
- Refute
Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.

Isaiah Berlin

We are doomed to choose and every choice may entail irreparable loss.

Isaiah Berlin
- Choose
- Loss
- Entail
To understand is to perceive patterns.

Isaiah Berlin