An act cannot be defined by the end sought by the actor, for an identical system of behaviour may be adjustable to too many different ends without altering its nature.
Emile DurkheimIt is not human nature which can assign the variable limits necessary to our needs. They are thus unlimited so far as they depend on the individual alone. Irrespective of any external regulatory force, our capacity for feeling is in itself an insatiable and bottomless abyss.
Emile DurkheimOne does not advance when one walks toward no goal, or - which is the same thing - when his goal is infinity.
Emile DurkheimToo cheerful a morality is a loose morality; it is appropriate only to decadent peoples and is found only among them.
Emile Durkheim