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But to manipulate men, to propel them towards goals which you — the social reformer — 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 Berlin Liberty (2002)

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More quotes by Isaiah Berlin

Few new truths have ever won their way against the resistance of established ideas save by being overstated.

To confuse our own constructions and inventions with eternal laws or divine decrees is one of the most fatal delusions of men.

Essays in Honour of E. H. Carr (1974)

Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.

The Listener (1978)

Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human.

Liberty (2002)

Everything is what it is: liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or culture, or human happiness or a quiet conscience.

Liberty (2002)

All Isaiah Berlin quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Isaiah Berlin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.