“I say cowardice, because the standards which is Isaiah Berlin himself has set for anyone who undertakes such an enterprise are dauntingly high. His ability to catch the allegiances and the emotional tone of the authors he has written about, as well as his ability to meet the commentator's first duty to the subtleties of their thought, has always meant that their per sonalities and ideas alike have remained in tact and alive.”

— Alan Ryan

Introduction in The Idea of freedom: Essays in Honour of Isaiah Berlin (1979), Edited by Alan Ryan.

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Alan Ryan 20

British philosopher 1940

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