---
title: "2 Industrial Society Quotes By Ernest Gellner"
description: "2 Industrial Society quotes by Ernest Gellner. Plus more from Ernest Gellner and more Industrial Society sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/ernest-gellner-25655_mobility_obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs_276363.jpg"
---

> [Obstruction of mobility, where it occurs, is one of the most serious and intractable problems of industrial society.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs-is-one-of-the-most-serious/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/ernest-gellner-25655_mobility_obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs_276363.jpg)

> [Industrial Society is not merely one containing 'industry,' large-scale productive units capable of supplying man's material needs in a way which can eliminate poverty: it is also a society in which knowledge plays a part wholly different from that which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/industrial-society-is-not-merely-one-containing-industry-large-scale/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e98/ernest-gellner-25655_capable_industrial-society-is-not-merely-one-con_2242403.jpg)

## More by Ernest Gellner

> [Nowledge which... transcends the bounds, the prejudices and prejudgements of any one society and culture is not an illusion but, on the contrary, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/nowledge-which-transcends-the-bounds-the-prejudices-and-prejudgements/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Obstruction of mobility, where it occurs, is one of the most serious and intractable problems of industrial society.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs-is-one-of-the-most-serious/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [“It is precisely by binding things together that traditional visions perpetuate themselves and the prejudgments contained within them; and it is by insisting on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/it-is-precisely-by-binding-things-together-that-traditional-visions/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [I am deeply sensitive to the spell of nationalism. I can play about thirty Bohemian folk songs ... on my mouth-organ. My oldest friend,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/i-am-deeply-sensitive-to-the-spell-of-nationalism-i-can-play-about/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [The production of obscurity in Paris compares to the production of motor cars in Detroit in the great period of American industry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/the-production-of-obscurity-in-paris-compares-to-the-production-of/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [“One persistent attempt to find a thread in the history of mankind focuses on the notion of Reason. Human history, on this view, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/one-persistent-attempt-to-find-a-thread-in-the-history-of-mankind/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/it-is-nationalism-which-engenders-nations-and-not-the-other-way-round/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [People are even more reluctant to admit that man explains nothing, than they were to admit that God explains nothing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/people-are-even-more-reluctant-to-admit-that-man-explains-nothing/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Civil Society is a cluster of institutions and associations strong enough to prevent tyranny, but which are, none the less, entered and left freely,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/civil-society-is-a-cluster-of-institutions-and-associations-strong/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Tribalism never prospers, for when it does, everyone will respect it as a true nationalism, and no-one will dare call it tribalism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/tribalism-never-prospers-for-when-it-does-everyone-will-respect-it-as/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [In brief, nationalism is a theory of political legitimacy, which requires the ethnic boundaries should not be cut across political ones, and, in particular,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/in-brief-nationalism-is-a-theory-of-political-legitimacy-which/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Just as every girl should have a husband, preferably her own, so every culture must have its state, preferably its own.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/just-as-every-girl-should-have-a-husband-preferably-her-own-so-every/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Philosophy is explicitness, generality, orientation and assessment. That which one would insinuate, thereof one must speak.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/philosophy-is-explicitness-generality-orientation-and-assessment-that/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness; it invents nations where they do not exist...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/nationalism-is-not-the-awakening-of-nations-to-self-consciousness-it/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

> [Academic environments are generally characterised by the presence of peole who claim to understand more than in fact they do. Linguistic Philosophy has produced…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/academic-environments-are-generally-characterised-by-the-presence-of/)

[Ernest Gellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-gellner/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/#itemlist",
            "name": "2 Industrial Society Quotes By Ernest Gellner",
            "numberOfItems": 2,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Obstruction of mobility, where it occurs, is one of the most serious and intractable problems of industrial society.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Ernest Gellner"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs-is-one-of-the-most-serious/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/ernest-gellner-25655_mobility_obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs_276363.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/ernest-gellner-25655_mobility_obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs_276363.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/ernest-gellner-25655_mobility_obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs_276363.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Obstruction of mobility, where it occurs, is one of the most serious and intractable problems of industrial…” — Ernest Gellner",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Industrial Society is not merely one containing 'industry,' large-scale productive units capable of supplying man's material needs in a way which can eliminate poverty: it is also a society in which knowledge plays a part wholly different from that which it played in earlier social forms, and which indeed possesses a quite different type of knowledge. Modern science is inconceivable outside an industrial society: but modern industrial society is equally inconceivable without modern science. Roughly, science is the mode of cognition of industrial society, and industry is the ecology of science.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Ernest Gellner"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-gellner/industrial-society-is-not-merely-one-containing-industry-large-scale/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e98/ernest-gellner-25655_capable_industrial-society-is-not-merely-one-con_2242403.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e98/ernest-gellner-25655_capable_industrial-society-is-not-merely-one-con_2242403.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e98/ernest-gellner-25655_capable_industrial-society-is-not-merely-one-con_2242403.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Industrial Society is not merely one containing 'industry,' large-scale productive units capable of…” — Ernest Gellner",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/",
            "name": "Industrial Society Quotes by Ernest Gellner",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/ernest-gellner-25655_mobility_obstruction-of-mobility-where-it-occurs_276363.jpg"
            },
            "description": "2 Industrial Society quotes by Ernest Gellner. Plus more from Ernest Gellner and more Industrial Society sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Industrial Society",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Ernest Gellner",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/industrial-society/ernest-gellner/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```