“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

—  Isaiah Berlin

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Isaiah Berlin photo
Isaiah Berlin 30
Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philoso… 1909–1997

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“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

Archilochus (-680–-645 BC) Ancient Greek lyric poet

As quoted in The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953) by Isaiah Berlin
Variant translations:
The fox knows many things; the hedgehog one great thing.
The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.
The fox knows many tricks; and the hedgehog only one; but that is the best one of all.
Fragments

Philip E. Tetlock photo

“The intellectually aggressive hedgehogs knew one big thing and sought, under the banner of parsimony, to expand the explanatory power of that big thing to “cover” new cases; the more eclectic foxes knew many little things and were content to improvise ad hoc solutions to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.”

Philip E. Tetlock (1954) American political science writer

About prediction and forecasting. Fox commented that "psychologist Philip Tetlock (following the lead of Isaiah Berlin), divided the world of political forecasters into hedgehogs and foxes."
Source: Justin Fox. " How to Be Bad at Forecasting https://hbr.org/2012/05/how-to-be-bad-at-forecasting.html," in Harvard Business Review, May 11, 2012.

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“They know too many things they should not know and they do not know some things they need to know.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

Moore, Malcolm. " 'Ai Weiwei: "The police can be very tough, but I can be tougher sometimes.”' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9299885/Ai-Weiwei-The-police-can-be-very-tough-but-I-can-be-tougher-sometimes.html," in: Telegraph, May 30, 2012.
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Peter Gabriel photo

“Fox the fox
Rat on the the rat
You can ape the ape
I know about that
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Darling, don't you monkey with the monkey.”

Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian

Shock The Monkey
Song lyrics, Peter Gabriel (IV), Security (1982)

“Psychologist Philip Tetlock (following the lead of Isaiah Berlin), divided the world of political forecasters into hedgehogs and foxes.”

Justin Fox (1964) American journalist

Justin Fox. " How to Be Bad at Forecasting https://hbr.org/2012/05/how-to-be-bad-at-forecasting.html," in Harvard Business Review, May 11, 2012.

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“There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus

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“I was constantly surprised by how much people didn’t know. That’s one of the things about traveling, one of the things you learn: many people in the world, even educated ones, don’t know much, and it doesn’t actually matter at all.”

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Source: Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It (1993), p. 15

Pindar photo

“Whoever knows many things
By nature is a poet.”

Pindar book Olympic Odes

Olympian 2, line 87; page 16; the Greek simply says:
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Variant translations:
Inborn of nature's wisdom
The poet's truth.
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“The lower the rank of managers, the more they know about fewer things. The higher the rank of managers, the less they know about many things.”

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“They knew a tremendous number of things — But was it worthwhile knowing all these things if they did not know the one important thing, the only important thing?”

Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German writer

Source: Siddhartha (1922), p. 21

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