The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or creative consciousness.

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

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

A monomaniac is a sick person whose mentality is perfectly healthy in all respects but one; he has a single flaw, clearly localized. At times, for example, he has an unreasonable and absurd desire to drink or steal or use abusive language; but all his other acts and all his other thoughts are strictly correct.

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

Maniacal suicide. —This is due to hallucinations or delirious conceptions. The patient kills himself to escape from an imaginary danger or disgrace, or to obey a mysterious order from on high, etc.

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