Der Igel und der Fuchs

"The fox knows a lot of things, but the hedgehog knows a big thing." This fragment of the Greek poet Archilochos describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's (1909-1997) masterly essay on Tolstoy, in which he makes a fundamental distinction - between people (foxes) who are attracted by an infinite variety of things and those (hedgehogs) who relate everything to a single, comprehensive system. Tolstoy longed for a unified view of things, but his perception of people, things and historical moments was so accurate that he couldn't help but write as he saw, felt and understood. He was a fox by nature who wanted to be a hedgehog.