French - Sociologist | April 15, 1858 - November 15, 1917
The roles of art, morality, religion, political faith, science itself are not to repair organic exhaustion nor to provide sound functioning of the organs. All this supraphysical life is built and expanded not because of the demands of the cosmic environment but because of the demands of the social environment.
Emile Durkheim
LifeFaithScienceArtReligion
Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds.
EnvironmentMindsOwnSocialUs
Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which expresses his temperament, the special conditions in which he is involved, and which, consequently, cannot be explained by the social and general causes of the phenomenon.
SuicideSpecialPersonalVictimAct
The human person, whose definition serves as the touchstone according to which good must be distinguished from evil, is considered as sacred, in what one might call the ritual sense of the word. It has something of that transcendental majesty which the churches of all times have given to their Gods.
GoodEvilPersonHumanSomething
There are two types of men: the great and the small.
GreatMenSmallTwoTypes
Whoever makes an attempt on a man's life, on a man's liberty, on a man's honour inspires us with a feeling of horror in every way analogous to that which the believer experiences when he sees his idol profaned.
LifeManFeelingLibertyHorrorWay
One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain, one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature.
NatureChangeNameLongWithout
It is too great comfort which turns a man against himself. Life is most readily renounced at the time and among the classes where it is least harsh.
LifeGreatTimeManComfortAgainst
From the physical point of view, a man is nothing more than a system of cells, or from the mental point of view, than a system of representations; in either case, he differs only in degree from animals.
ManViewPoint Of ViewNothingMore
Men have been obliged to make for themselves a notion of what religion is, long before the science of religions started its methodical comparisons.
ScienceMenReligionLongReligions
Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action.
OpinionActionFirstTwoDetermined
That men have an interest in knowing the world which surrounds them, and consequently that their reflection should have been applied to it at an early date, is something that everyone will readily admit.
ReflectionMenWorldEarlyAdmit
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Emile Durkheim quotes