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

Sociological method as we practice it rests wholly on the basic principle that social facts must be studied as things, that is, as realities external to the individual. There is no principle for which we have received more criticism; but none is more fundamental. Indubitably for sociology to be possible, it must above all have an object all its own. It must take cognizance of a reality which is not in the domain of other sciences... there can be no sociology unless societies exist, and that societies cannot exist if there are only individuals.

That men have an interest in knowing the world which surrounds them, and consequently that their reflection should have been applied to it at an early date, is something that everyone will readily admit.

By definition, sacred beings are separated beings. That which characterizes them is that there is a break of continuity between them and the profane beings.

This solidarity can grow only in inverse ratio to personality... Solidarity which comes from likenesses is at its maximum when the collective conscience completely envelops our whole conscience and coincides in all points with it... when this solidarity exercises its force, our personality vanishes, as our definition permits us to say, for we are no longer ourselves, but the collective life.

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

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