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

Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which expresses his temperament, the special conditions in which he is involved, and which, consequently, cannot be explained by the social and general causes of the phenomenon.

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.

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

One does not advance when one walks toward no goal, or - which is the same thing - when his goal is infinity.

There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent.

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