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Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character.

Emile Durkheim

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Emile Durkheim
Age: 59 †
Born: 1858
Born: January 1
Died: 1917
Died: January 1
Anthropologist
Historian Of Religion
Philosopher
Professor
Sociologist
Troyes
Aube France
Emile Durkheim
Live
Melancholy
Many
Naturally
Men
Entirely
Impervious
Life
Sadness
Endured
Sorrow
Embraced
Pleasure
Sad
Taken
Sorrows
Character
Somewhat

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Too cheerful a morality is a loose morality it is appropriate only to decadent peoples and is found only among them.
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It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.
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The Christian conceives of his abode on Earth in no more delightful colors than the Jainist sectarian. He sees in it only a time of sad trial he also thinks that his true country is not of this world.
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Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds.
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Science cannot describe individuals, but only types. If human societies cannot be classified, they must remain inaccessible to scientific description.
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If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.
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Man is only a moral being because he lives in society, since morality consists in solidarity with the group, and varies according to that solidarity. Cause all social life to vanish, and moral life would vanish at the same time, having no object to cling to.
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One does not advance when one walks toward no goal, or - which is the same thing - when his goal is infinity.
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A person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. It is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact.
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The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings.
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Melancholy suicide. - This is connected with a general state of extreme depression and exaggerated sadness, causing the patient no longer to realize sanely the bonds which connect him with people and things about him. Pleasures no longer attract.
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From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without knowing where to find ultimate foothold. Nothing can calm it, since its goal is far beyond all it can attain. Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations reality is therefore abandoned.
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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.
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When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.
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Man is a moral being, only because he lives in society. Let all social life disappear and morality will disappear with it.
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The first and most basic rule is to consider social facts as things.
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Social life comes from a double source, the likeness of consciences and the division of social labour.
Emile Durkheim
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An act cannot be defined by the end sought by the actor, for an identical system of behaviour may be adjustable to too many different ends without altering its nature.
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We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we condemn it.
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The roles of art, morality, religion, political faith, science itself are not to repair organic exhaustion nor to provide sound functioning of the organs. All this supraphysical life is built and expanded not because of the demands of the cosmic environment but because of the demands of the social environment.
Emile Durkheim