Émile Durkheim

The more complex a society, the more developed its division of labor.

The state is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.

The sociologist must be objective and impartial.

The social environment is the determinant factor of human behavior.

The moral authority of society is the source of all moral obligation.

The social fact is external to the individual.

The social fact is coercive.

The social fact is general.

The social fact is independent of its individual manifestations.

The study of society must be scientific.

When a society is healthy, it is not because it is free from crime, but because it is free from anomie.

The more primitive a society, the more religious it is. This is not a judgment, merely an observation of the facts.

If there is a science of society, it is because there are societies, and if there are societies, it is because there are social facts.

The individual is merely the raw material that society molds to its own ends.

Society is not a mere sum of individuals, but the system formed by their association has its own reality.

The scientist, like the artist, is a creator.

We must not say that an action is moral because it is commanded, but that it is commanded because it is moral.

When the individual is not integrated into a collective, he is more likely to commit suicide. A rather grim form of individualism, wouldn't you say?

The more civilized a society, the more complex its division of labor. And the more complex, the more opportunities for things to go wrong.

To be free is not to do what one pleases, but to be master of oneself.