Emile Durkheim — "The sacred is the very foundation of society."

"The primary function of religion is to maintain social cohesion."

"The first rule of sociology is to treat social facts as things."

"The first and most basic rule is to consider social facts as things."

"Man cannot become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs. To free him from all social pressure is to abandon him to himself and demoralize him."

"Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community all th…"