Ernest Gellner

"The way forward does not lie in amateur and comically timeless linguistic sociology which takes ‘forms of life’ for granted , but in the systematic study of forms of life which does not take them for …"

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

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

"The idea that some of the members of the smooth, bland variety of second generation of linguistic philosophers undergo ”perplexity”, let alone intellectual cramp, has an element of high comedy."

"I do not recommend any legislative action against hermeneutics. I am a liberal person opposed to all unnecessary state limitation of individual liberties. Hermeneutics between consenting adults should…"

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

"Knowledge 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 ach…"

"Looking at the contemporary world, two things are obvious: democracy is doing rather badly, and democracy is doing very well. New states are born free, yet everywhere they are in chains. Democracy is …"