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

— Ernest Gellner Words and Things (1959)

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More quotes by Ernest Gellner

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

Nations and Nationalism (1983)

I do not recommend any legislative action against hermeneutics.

Anthropology and Politics (1995)

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

Legitimation of Belief (1975)

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

Nations and Nationalism (1983)

When knowledge is the slave of social considerations, it defines a special class; when it serves its own ends only, it no longer does so.

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ernest Gellner (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.