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

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

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 doing very badly in that democratic institutions have fallen by the wayside in very many of the newly independent 'transitional' societies, and they are precarious elsewhere. Democracy, on the other hand, is doing extremely well in so far as it is almost (though not quite) universally accepted as a valid norm.

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