For Maich Berlin, There is o fundamental distinction in mankind behween those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things foxes and those who relate everything to a control all embracing system - hedgehogs
It can be applied to the greatest creative
mind: Dante, Ibsen and Proust are hedgehogs, while Shakespeare, Aristotle ond Joyce are foxes
Yet when Berlin reaches the case of Tolstoy, he finds a fox by nature, but a hedgehog by conviction, a duality which holds the key to understanding Tolstoy's work, illuminating a paradox of his philosophy of history and showing why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics.