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The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, from imprisonment, from enslavement by others. The rest is extension of this sense, or else metaphor.

— Isaiah Berlin Liberty (2002)

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Freedom

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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You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

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What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

Abraham Lincoln

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Attribution

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.