Émile Durkheim Quotes

It seems very strange that one must turn back, and be transported to the very beginnings of history, in order to arrive at an understanding of humanity as it is at present.
Émile Durkheim
Socialism is not a science, a sociology in miniature: it is a cry of pain.
Émile Durkheim
When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.
Émile Durkheim
One does not advance when one walks toward no goal, or - which is the same thing - when his goal is infinity.
Émile Durkheim
Maniacal suicide. —This is due to hallucinations or delirious conceptions. The patient kills himself to escape from an imaginary danger or disgrace, or to obey a mysterious order from on high, etc.
Émile Durkheim
Crime brings together honest men and concentrates them.
Émile Durkheim
We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we condemn it.
Émile Durkheim
When there is no other aim but to outstrip constantly the point arrived at, how painful to be thrown back!...Since imagination is hungry for novelty, and ungoverned, it gropes at random
Émile Durkheim
Man cannot become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs. To free him from all social pressure is to abandon him to himself and demoralize him.
Émile Durkheim
Melancholy suicide. —This is connected with a general state of extreme depression and exaggerated sadness, causing the patient no longer to realize sanely the bonds which connect him with people and things about him. Pleasures no longer attract;
Émile Durkheim