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

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

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.

Even one well-made observation will be enough in many cases, just as one well-constructed experiment often suffices for the establishment of a law.

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.

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

Our excessive tolerance with regard to suicide is due to the fact that, since the state of mind from which it springs is a general one, we cannot condemn it without condemning ourselves; we are too saturated with it not partly to excuse it.