Auguste Comte > Quotes

“The sacred formula of positivism: love as a principle, the order as a foundation, and progress as a goal.”
― Auguste Comte

“Religion is an illusion of childhood, outgrown under proper education.”
― Auguste Comte

“From the study of the development of human intelligence, in all directions, and through all times, the discovery arises of a great fundamental law, to which it is necessarily subject, and which has a solid foundation of proof, both in the facts of our organization and in our historical experience. The law is this: that each of our leading conceptions -- each branch of our knowledge -- passes successively through three different theoretical conditions: the theological, or fictitious; the metaphysical, or abstract; and the scientific, or positive. In other words, the human mind, by its nature, employs in its progress three methods of philosophizing, the character of which is essentially different, and even radically opposed: namely, the theological method, the metaphysical, and the positive. Hence arise three philosophies, or general systems of conceptions on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the others. The first is the necessary point of departure of the human understanding, and the third is its fixed and definitive state. The second is merely a state of transition.”
― Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive 1/6

“To understand a science it is necessary to know its history.”
― Auguste Comte

“All good intellects have repeated, since Bacon’s time, that there can be no real knowledge but that which is based on observed facts. This is incontestable, in our present advanced stage; but, if we look back to the primitive stage of human knowledge, we shall see that it must have been otherwise then. If it is true that every theory must be based upon observed facts, it is equally true that facts cannot be observed without the guidance of some theory. Without such guidance, our facts would be desultory and fruitless; we could not retain them: for the most part we could not even perceive them.”
― Auguste Comte, The Positive Philosophy

“Demography is destiny.”
― Auguste Comte

“The dead govern the living.”
― Auguste Comte

“Each department of knowledge passes through three stages. The theoretical stage; the theological stage and the metaphysical or abstract stage.”
― Auguste Comte, Cours de Philosophie Positive. [Tome 1] (Éd.1830)

“The human mind, by its nature, employs in its progress three methods of philosophizing, the character of which is essentially different, and even radically opposed: viz., the theological method, the metaphysical, and the positive. Hence arises three philosophies, or general systems of conceptions on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the others. The first is the necessary point of departure of the human understanding; and the third is its fixed and definitive state. The second is merely a state of transition.”
― Auguste Comte, The Positive Philosophy

“A vida dos vivos é sempre decidida por um filósofo morto.”
― Auguste Comte