Science Cannot Describe Individuals, But Only Types.

Sociological Method As We Practice It Rests Wholly On The Basic Principle That Social Facts Must Be Studied As Things, That Is, As Realities External To The Individual. There Is No Principle For Which We Have Received More Criticism; But None Is More Fundamental. Indubitably For Sociology To Be Possible, It Must Above All Have An Object All Its Own. It Must Take Cognizance Of A Reality Which Is Not In The Domain Of Other Sciences... There Can Be No Sociology Unless Societies Exist, And That Societies Cannot Exist If There Are Only Individuals.

Religious Representations Are Collective Representations Which Express Collective Realities.

Our Whole Social Environment Seems To Us To Be Filled With Forces Which Really Exist Only In Our Own Minds.

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 Group Thinks, Feels, And Acts Quite Differently From The Way In Which Its Members Would Were They Isolated. If, Then, We Begin With The Individual, We Shall Be Able To Understand Nothing Of What Takes Place In The Group.

Our Excessive Tolerance With Regard To Suicide Is Due To The Fact That, Since The State Of Mind From Which It Springs Is A General One, We Cannot Condemn It Without Condemning Ourselves; We Are Too Saturated With It Not Partly To Excuse It.