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

Man is a moral being, only because he lives in society. Let all social life disappear and morality will disappear with it..

A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting whi….

Social life comes from a double source, the likeness of consciences and the division of social labour..

The first and most basic rule is to consider social facts as things..

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt..

Man is only a moral being because he lives in society, since morality consists in solidarity with the group, and varies according to that solidarity.….

This solidarity can grow only in inverse ratio to personality... Solidarity which comes from likenesses is at its maximum when the collective conscie….

Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds..

There is no society known where a more or less developed criminality is not found under different forms. No people exists whose morality is not daily….

Melancholy suicide. - This is connected with a general state of extreme depression and exaggerated sadness, causing the patient no longer to realize ….

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….

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

Sociological method as we practice it rests wholly on the basic principle that social facts must be studied as things, that is, as realities external….

When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable..

Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned..

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

When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable..

Society is not a mere sum of individuals. Rather, the system formed by their association represents a specific reality which has its own characterist….

What history teaches us is that man does not change arbitrarily; he does not transform himself at will on hearing the voices of inspired prophets. Th….

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