17+ Ernest Gellner Quotes On Education, Happiness And Socialism

Ernest Gellner was a French-British philosopher who was born in Paris in 1925. He is best known for his work on the philosophy of nationalism, and his book Nations and Nationalism (1983) is considered a classic in the field. Gellner also wrote extensively on the philosophy of science, social anthropology, and the philosophy of language. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Ernest Gellner on education, leadership, happiness.

Tribalism never prospers, for when it does, everyone will respect it as a true nationalism, and no-one will dare call it tribalism. — Ernest Gellner

Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness; it invents nations where they do not exist. — Ernest Gellner

The production of obscurity in Paris compares to the production of motor cars in Detroit in the great period of American industry. — Ernest Gellner

Philosophy is explicitness, generality, orientation and assessment. That which one would insinuate, thereof one must speak. — Ernest Gellner

In brief, nationalism is a theory of political legitimacy, which requires the ethnic boundaries should not be cut across political ones, and, in particular, that ethnic boundaries within a given state a contingency already formally excluded by the principle in its general formulation should not separate the power holders from the rest. — Ernest Gellner

Ideas, and even the detection of errors, require more than care and caution. — Ernest Gellner

Just as every girl should have a husband, preferably her own, so every culture must have its state, preferably its own. — Ernest Gellner

The way forward does not lie in amateur and comically timeless linguistic sociology which takes 'forms of life ' for granted (and this is what philosophy has been recently), but in the systematic study of forms of life which does not take them for granted at all. It hardly matters whether such an inquiry is called philosophy or sociology. — Ernest Gellner

America was born modern; it did not have to achieve modernity, nor did it have modernity thrust upon it. — Ernest Gellner

Capital, like capitalism, seems an overrated category. — Ernest Gellner

A cleric who loses his faith abandons his calling; a philosopher who loses his redefines his subject. — Ernest Gellner

It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round. — Ernest Gellner

People are even more reluctant to admit that man explains nothing, than they were to admit that God explains nothing. — Ernest Gellner

I am a humble adherent of...Enlightenment Rationalist Fundamentalism. — Ernest Gellner

Nowledge which... transcends the bounds, the prejudices and prejudgements of any one society and culture is not an illusion but, on the contrary, a glorious and luminous reality. Just how it was achieved remains subject to debate. — Ernest Gellner

Obstruction of mobility, where it occurs, is one of the most serious and intractable problems of industrial society. — Ernest Gellner

Civil Society is a cluster of institutions and associations strong enough to prevent tyranny, but which are, none the less, entered and left freely, rather than imposed by birth or sustained by awesome ritual. You can join the Labour Party without slaughtering a sheep. — Ernest Gellner

Life Lessons by Ernest Gellner

1. Ernest Gellner believed that the development of nation-states was the key to understanding the modern world, and that the emergence of a shared culture was essential for a nation to thrive.
2. He argued that nationalism and identity were intertwined, and that a nation's identity was shaped by its culture, language, and history.
3. Gellner's work emphasizes the importance of understanding a nation's history and culture in order to better understand its identity, and to foster a sense of unity and belonging.