It is a quite remarkable fact that the great religions of the most civilized peoples are more deeply fraught with sadness than the simpler beliefs of earlier societies. This certainly does not mean that the current of pessimism is eventually to submerge the other, but it proves that it does not lose ground and that it does not seem destined to disappear.
Emile DurkheimReligious representations are collective representations which express collective realities.
Emile DurkheimTo pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.
Emile DurkheimA 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.
Emile DurkheimReality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.
Emile Durkheim