Émile Durkheim (1858-1919)

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.

Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities.
 

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.

One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it.

In vain, one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature.

It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.