Emile Durkheim Quotes

A collection of quotes by Emile Durkheim.

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a French sociologist, philosopher, and academic. Regarded as one of the founding fathers of sociology, Durkheim contributed greatly to the development of the discipline through his groundbreaking theories. He emphasized the importance of social facts, collective consciousness, and the integration of individuals into society, asserting that societal cohesion and order are essential for social stability. Durkheim's influential works, including "The Division of Labor in Society" and "Suicide," laid the foundation for modern sociology, establishing his enduring legacy in the field.

Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fev

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

Dreams

One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of empti

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. When one feels such pleasure in non-existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.

Thought

Man's characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts i

Man's characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral; that is, social. He is governed not by a material environment brutally imposed on him, but by a conscience superior to his own, the superiority of which he feels. Because the greater, better part of his existence transcends the body, he escapes the body's yoke, but is subject to that of society.

Society

While the State becomes inflated and hypertrophied in order

While the State becomes inflated and hypertrophied in order to obtain a firm enough grip upon individuals, but without succeeding, the latter, without mutual relationships, tumble over one another like so many liquid molecules, encountering no central energy to retain, fix and organize them.

State

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to be

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt. If it cannot discover the claims to existence of the objects of its questioning -- and it would be miraculous if it so soon succeeded in solving so many mysteries -- it will deny them all reality, the mere formulation of the problem already implying an inclination to negative solutions. But in so doing it will become void of all positive content and, finding nothing which offers it resistance, will launch itself perforce into the emptiness of inner revere.

Doubt

There is no society known where a more or less developed cri

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 infringed upon. We must therefore call crime necessary and declare that it cannot be non-existent, that the fundamental conditions of social organization, as they are understood, logically imply it.

Crime

Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which

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.

Suicide

The wise man, knowing how to enjoy achieved results without

The wise man, knowing how to enjoy achieved results without having constantly to replace them with others, finds in them an attachment to life in the hour of difficulty. But the man who has always pinned all his hopes on the future and lived with his eyes fixed upon it, has nothing in the past as a comfort against the present's afflictions, for the past was nothing to him but a series of hastily experienced stages. What blinded him to himself was his expectation always to find further on the happiness he had so far missed. Now he is stopped in his tracks; from now on nothing remains behind or ahead of him to fix his gaze upon.

Expectation

From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without k

From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without knowing where to find ultimate foothold. Nothing can calm it, since its goal is far beyond all it can attain. Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.

Greed

It is too great comfort which turns a man against himself. L

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.

Wealth

It is a quite remarkable fact that the great religions of th

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.

Pessimism

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. If he loves, it is not to give himself, to blend in fecund union with another being, but to meditate on his love. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves.

Identity

Too cheerful a morality is a loose morality; it is appropria

Too cheerful a morality is a loose morality; it is appropriate only to decadent peoples and is found only among them.

Optimism