Just as every girl should have a husband, preferably her own, so every culture must have its state, preferably its own.
Ernest GellnerAmerica was born modern; it did not have to achieve modernity, nor did it have modernity thrust upon it.
Ernest GellnerCivil 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.
Ernest Gellner