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.

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings.

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

Science cannot describe individuals, but only types. If human societies cannot be classified, they must remain inaccessible to scientific description.

A person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. It is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact.

Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities.

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