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Quote by Ernest Gellner

Work

Legitimation of Belief

This book delves into the theoretical frameworks and arguments that support and challenge various belief structures across different cultures and societies. more

Author

Ernest Gellner
Ernest Gellner

Ernest Gellner was a distinguished philosopher known for his contributions to social theory and the philosophy of culture. Born on December 9, 1925, in Vienna, Austria, he passed away on November 5, 1995. Gellner's philosophical insights focused on the analysis of modernity, nationalism, and the structure of societies. more

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“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.”

“Events are the ephemera of history; they pass across its stage like fireflies, hardly glimpsed before they settle back into darkness and as often as not into oblivion. Every event, however brief, has to be sure a contribution to make, lights up some dark corner or even some wide vista of history. Nor is it only political history which benefits most, for every historical landscape - political, economic, social, even geographical - is illumined by the intermittent flare of the event.”

“Democracy suits Europeans today partly because it is associated with the triumph of capitalism and partly because it involves less commitment or intrusion into their lives than any of the alternatives. Europeans accept democracy because they no longer believe in politics. It is for this reason that we find both high levels of support for democracy in cross-national opinion polls and high rates of political apathy.”

“Most of the slaves, who were thus unconditionally freed, returned without any solicitation to their former masters, to serve them, at stated wages; as free men. The work, which they now did, was found to better done than before.”