Isaiah Berlin Quotes

There is no bigotry like that of 'free thought' run to seed.

The spirit of sect and bigotry has planted its hoof amid the stars. You have only to discuss the problem, whether the stars are inhabited or not, in order to discover it.

To be right is dangerous, it has ever been the source of all intolerance.

Intolerance is the besetting sin of moral fervour.

The persecuting spirit has its origin... in the assumption that one's own opinions are infallibly correct.

Self-righteousness has killed more people than smoking.

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

Those who believe that they have absolute truth and the only moral system are destructive both to themselves and to those whom they try to convert.

The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.

Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.

Fundamentalism - of any variety - is a form of illiteracy, in that it asserts that it is necessary to read only one book.

Confidence and superiority: It's the usual fundamentalist stuff: I've got the truth, and you haven't.

Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding.

Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.

Prejudice locks the mind. Nothing can enter. Nothing true can escape.

… the politically engaged will tend also to be the most closed-minded.

Bigotry is an odd thing. To be bigoted you have to be absolutely sure you are right and nothing makes that surety and righteousness like continence. Continence is the foe of heresy.

Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government.

Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see.

Bigotry is chronic dogmatism.

Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often as intolerance.

Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.

It is not possible to unknow what you do know - the result of that is fanaticism.

Claiming that you have got the truth wrapped up does breed violence and intolerance.

As in political so in literary action a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and the consistent narrowness of his outlook.