Ernest Gellner

“The transition to an industrial society is the condition of general nationalism.”

“Relativism is the Prozac of the placidly prosperous.”

“The great success of the West was to link high culture and high-powered technology together.”

“It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round.”

“Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist.”

“A society which is defined by its shared culture is a nation.”

“Man is a rational, but also a lazy animal.”

“Psychoanalysis is a myth that has become a reality. It is a therapy that has created a disease.”

“Marxism is a religion, in the sense that it provides a complete guide to life, a meta-theory that is not refutable, but can be used to interpret everything.”

“Nationalism is a theory of political legitimacy, which requires that ethnic boundaries should not cut across political ones.”

“The idea of a single civilization is an oxymoron.”

“Tolerance is a virtue of people who don't believe in anything.”

“The state is the institution that holds the monopoly on legitimate violence.”

“Modern society is not based on the book, but on the blueprint.”

“The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk. This is a great truth. But it is not the whole truth. The lark of Minerva also flies at dawn.”