"Too cheerful a morality is a loose morality; it is appropriate only to decadent peoples and is found only among them."

"The collective conscience is the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society."

"It is society that has made us what we are; it is society that, through its institutions, educates us, shapes our thoughts, and determines our actions."

"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 sa…"

"Education is the action exercised by the older generations upon those who are not yet ready for social life."