Émile Durkheim

Suicide is an individual act whose causes are essentially social.

The value of a man is measured by his capacity to serve society.

Truth is a collective representation.

The beautiful is that which is in harmony with the collective ideal.

Man can only be happy if he is in harmony with his society.

The conscience collective is the set of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society.

Religion is a system of ideas by means of which men represent to themselves the society of which they are members.

The individual is only a part of a greater whole, and his life has meaning only in relation to that whole.

The moral life begins when the individual becomes aware of his dependence on society.

The social fact is any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint.

The sacred is not a substance, but a relation.

The individual consciousness is a product of the collective consciousness.

The function of punishment is to maintain the cohesion of society.

Morality is the science of duties.

The collective effervescence is the source of all religious life.

Man is a social animal, and his nature is to live in society.

The division of labor is not merely an economic phenomenon; it is a moral phenomenon.

The individual is only truly free when he acts in conformity with the collective will.

The sacred and the profane are two distinct and separate categories.

The individual is a product of his environment, and his consciousness is shaped by the society in which he lives.