"If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society i..." — Emile Durkheim

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.

A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the fact that they translate these common ideas into common practices, is what is called a Church. In all history, we do not find a single religion without a Church.

Men have been obliged to make for themselves a notion of what religion is, long before the science of religions started its methodical comparisons.

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