At first sight, one does not see what relations there can be between religion and logic. Emile Durkheim More Quotes by Emile Durkheim More Quotes From Emile Durkheim The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves. Emile Durkheim passionmeditationmen While the State becomes inflated and hypertrophied in order to obtain a firm enough grip upon individuals, but without succeeding, the latter, without mutual relationships, tumble over one another like so many liquid molecules, encountering no central energy to retain, fix and organize them. Emile Durkheim moleculesenergyorder Faith is not uprooted by dialectic proof; it must already be deeply shaken by other causes to be unable to withstand the shock of argument. Emile Durkheim argumentproofcauses There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent. Emile Durkheim sadnesslightfacts 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 reflectionshould-havemen Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action. Emile Durkheim religiousfundamentalstwo I can be free only to the extent that others are forbidden to profit from their physical, economic, or other superiority to the detriment of my liberty. Emile Durkheim profiteconomicliberty It is a quite remarkable fact that the great religions of the most civilized peoples are more deeply fraught with sadness than the simpler beliefs of earlier societies. This certainly does not mean that the current of pessimism is eventually to submerge the other, but it proves that it does not lose ground and that it does not seem destined to disappear. Emile Durkheim sadnessdoemean There are two types of men: the great and the small. Emile Durkheim smallgreatmentwo 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 constitutionmoralsurprisesociety It is inadmissible that systems of ideas like religions, which have held so considerable a place in history, and to which, in all times, men have come to receive the energy which they must have to live, should be made up of a tissue of illusions. Emile Durkheim placemenhistoryideas 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 personsomethinggoodevil 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 viewnothingmanpoint-of-view
