Viner shared an instinctual support for free markets with Robbins, but he was much more willing to abandon his conservative inclinations to accommodate situational complexities and the po liti cal tenor of the time. “While I am more of a defeatist than you,” he confi ded to his close friend in 1940, “and am more disposed to be content when the lesser of evils is chosen instead of the true good, I am wholly and admiringly with you in your aims.” Robbins recognized and respected Viner’s reluctance to align himself with any abstract doctrine. “Jack was not a believer in any orthodox creed,” Robbins wrote in a retrospective on Viner’s career. “But he believed passionately in the liberal values: equality before the law, the maximum freedom for the individual compatible with similar privileges for his fellows, sympathy and help for the unfortunate.” Viner’s ideological fl exibility gained him a reputation for equanimity and respect for multiple points of view.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 101