Emile Durkheim

When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.

— Emile Durkheim

There is no sociology worthy of the name which does not possess a historical character.

— Emile Durkheim

“...Solidarity is, literally something which the society possesses.”

— Emile Durkheim

Social life comes from a double source, the likeness of consciences and the division of social labour.

— Emile Durkheim

“Crime brings together honest men and concentrates them.”

— Émile Durkheim

Socialism is not a science, a sociology in miniature: it is a cry of pain.

— Emile Durkheim

At first sight, one does not see what relations there can be between religion and logic.

— Emile Durkheim

When man discovered the mirror, he began to lose his soul.

— Emile Durkheim

It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.

— Emile Durkheim

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the…

— Emile Durkheim

From the physical point of view, a man is nothing more than a system of cells, or from the mental point of…

— Emile Durkheim

The wise man, knowing how to enjoy achieved results without having constantly to replace them with others, finds in them an attachment…

— Emile Durkheim

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul…

— Emile Durkheim

Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is…

— Emile Durkheim

It is too great comfort which turns a man against himself. Life is most readily renounced at the time and among the…

— Emile Durkheim

“It is said that we do not make the guilty party suffer for the sake of suffering; it is nonetheless true that…

— Émile Durkheim

A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world…

— Emile Durkheim

This solidarity can grow only in inverse ratio to personality... Solidarity which comes from likenesses is at its maximum when the collective…

— Emile Durkheim

There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright…

— Emile Durkheim

Man is only a moral being because he lives in society, since morality consists in solidarity with the group, and varies according…

— Emile Durkheim

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. His passions are mere appearances, being…

— Emile Durkheim

Man's characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral; that is, social. He is governed not by…

— Emile Durkheim

Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which expresses his temperament, the special conditions in which he is involved,…

— Emile Durkheim

A monomaniac is a sick person whose mentality is perfectly healthy in all respects but one; he has a single flaw, clearly…

— Emile Durkheim

Sociological method as we practice it rests wholly on the basic principle that social facts must be studied as things, that is,…

— Emile Durkheim

What history teaches us is that man does not change arbitrarily; he does not transform himself at will on hearing the voices…

— Emile Durkheim

“Anyone who has truly practiced a religion knows very well that it is [the set of regularly repeated actions that make up…

— Émile Durkheim

We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we condemn it.

— Emile Durkheim

There are two types of men: the great and the small.

— Emile Durkheim

When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.

— Emile Durkheim

“Nihil est in intellectu quod non ante fuerit in sensu,”

— Émile Durkheim

The first and most basic rule is to consider social facts as things.

— Emile Durkheim

The first and most fundamental rule is: Consider social facts as things.

— Emile Durkheim

Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities.

— Emile Durkheim

Irrespective of any external, regulatory force, our capacity for feeling is in itself an insatiable and bottomless abyss.

— Emile Durkheim

An act cannot be defined by the end sought by the actor, for an identical system of behaviour may be adjustable to…

— Emile Durkheim

Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds.

— Emile Durkheim

Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations;…

— Emile Durkheim

Man cannot become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs.…

— Emile Durkheim

The Christian conceives of his abode on Earth in no more delightful colors than the Jainist sectarian. He sees in it only…

— Emile Durkheim