17 Emile Durkheim Quotes for You to Enjoy

Emile Durkheim

French Sociologist

Born: Apr 15, 1858

Died: Nov 15, 1917

Life Men Religion Society Which World

Related authors: Georg Simmel Ivan Illich Jean Baudrillard Marshall McLuhan Matthew Desmond Pierre Bourdieu Talcott Parsons Zygmunt Bauman

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

Dreams Reality Abandoned Seems Therefore Comparison Imaginations

A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the fact that they translate these common ideas into common practices, is what is called a Church. In all history, we do not find a single religion without a Church. Emile Durkheim

Religion History World Church Single Think Society Relations Way Members Find Fact Sacred Ideas Practices Without Same Common Regard Translate Profane United Whose

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. Emile Durkheim

Man Degree Animals Nothing System Physical Case Mental More Only Point Point Of View He Than Cells Either View Differs

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. Emile Durkheim

Life Time Great Man Too Harsh Classes Most Himself Comfort Readily Least Where Which Against Turns Among

A 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 Durkheim

Single Others Relation Relative Immediately Distinguished Contact Environment Merely Most Attributed Subject Person Being Which Autonomy

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. Emile Durkheim

Nature Change Long Vain Increasingly Remain Absorb Name Contemplation Attracted Emptiness Without Does Infinity Being Cannot

There are two types of men: the great and the small. Emile Durkheim

Great Men Types Small Two

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

State Definition Unattainable Oneself Pursue Condemn Perpetual Goal Which Unhappiness

Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities. Emile Durkheim

Collective Religious Which Realities Express

The individual can maintain himself in a society definitely organized only through possessing an equally definite mental and moral constitution. This is what the neuropath lacks. His state of disturbance causes him to be constantly taken by surprise by circumstances. Emile Durkheim

Constitution Society State Definite Definitely Possessing Circumstances Moral Constantly Disturbance Mental Only Individual Through Taken Maintain Him Himself Equally Causes Surprise His Lacks Organized

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. Emile Durkheim

World Reflection Will Men Everyone Admit Something Date Knowing Readily Been Surrounds Which Interest Them Should Applied Early Consequently

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. Emile Durkheim

Thoughts Language Example Single Healthy Sick Other Strictly Correct Respects Steal Unreasonable Drink Mentality He Perfectly Absurd Clearly For Example His Times Person Flaw Use Whose Acts Desire

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. Emile Durkheim

Good Word Evil Sense Considered Churches Distinguished Definition Must Something Touchstone Given Ritual Sacred Majesty Call According Times Person Gods Human Transcendental Which Might Whose Serve

The liberal professions, and in a wider sense the well-to-do classes, are certainly those with the liveliest taste for knowledge and the most active intellectual life. Emile Durkheim

Life Knowledge Sense Active Liberal Those Classes Most Well-To-Do Intellectual Intellectual Life Taste Certainly Professions Wider

The Christian conceives of his abode on Earth in no more delightful colors than the Jainist sectarian. He sees in it only a time of sad trial; he also thinks that his true country is not of this world. Emile Durkheim

The fundamental proposition of the apriorist theory is that knowledge is made up of two sorts of elements, which cannot be reduced into one another, and which are like two distinct layers superimposed one upon the other. Emile Durkheim

Knowledge Made Other Distinct Layers Proposition Like Sort Another Reduced Up Cannot Which Theory Elements Fundamental Two

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