Man is a moral being, only because he lives in society. Let all social life disappear and morality will disappear with it.
Emile DurkheimSadness does not inhere in things; it does not reach us from the world and through mere contemplation of the world. It is a product of our own thought. We create it out of whole cloth.
Emile DurkheimEach new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.
Emile DurkheimAt this point, an urgent question arises: [...] Is it our duty to seek to become a thorough and complete human being, one quite sufficient unto himself; or, on the contrary, to be only a part of a whole, the organ of an organism? Briefly, is the division of labor, at the same time that it is a law of nature, also a moral rule of human conduct; and, if it has this latter character, why and in what degree?
Emile Durkheim