Émile Durkheim

The state is the organ of the collective consciousness.

The more advanced a society, the more the individual is differentiated from the group.

The collective effervescence is the source of religious life.

The individual is a product of society, not its creator.

The object of sociology is the study of social facts.

Sociology is not a branch of psychology.

The social environment is the determinant of human behavior.

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

The individual is not an isolated atom, but a part of a larger whole.

The function of punishment is to maintain the collective consciousness.

Society is not a mere sum of individuals. Rather, the system formed by their association represents a specific reality which has its own characteristics.

The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or common consciousness.

When man is asked about the fundamental elements of his personality, he will invariably cite two: his life and his body.

The individual is socialized by the collective representations that form the foundation of his thought and action.

Crime brings together upright consciences and concentrates them.

To become conscious of group life, one must abstract oneself from the individual and rise above the particular.

The division of labor is not merely economic; it is also moral.

Suicide is the result of social causes, not individual pathologies.

Religion is something eminently social.

The hypothesis of God is the hypothesis of society itself.