Every attempt to employ mathematical methods in the study of chemical questions must be considered profoundly irrational and contrary to the spirit of chemistry.... if mathematical analysis should ever hold a prominent place in chemistry -- an aberration which is happily almost impossible -- it would occasion a rapid and widespread degeneration of that science.
Auguste ComteIf we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, why should we allow it in morals or politics?
Auguste ComteEvery science consists in the coordination of facts; if the different observations were entirely isolated, there would be no science.
Auguste ComteAll good intellects have repeated, since Bacon's time, that there can be no real knowledge but which is based on observed facts.
Auguste ComteThe word right should be excluded from political language, as the word cause from the language of philosophy.
Auguste ComteAll 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 can not 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 ComteIn mathematics we find the primitive source of rationality; and to mathematics must the biologists resort for means to carry out their researches.
Auguste ComteLanguage forms a kind of wealth, which all can make use of at once without causing any diminution of the store, and which thus admits a complete community of enjoyment; for all, freely participating in the general treasure, unconsciously aid in its preservation.
Auguste Comtend now that man's history has been for the first time systematically considered as a whole, and has been found to be, like all other phenomena, subject to invariable laws, the preparatory labours of modern Science are ended.
Auguste ComteC'este donc par l'étude des mathématiques, et seulement par elle, que l'on peut se faire une idée juste et approfondie de ce que c'est qu'une science.
Auguste ComteThe sacred formula of positivism: love as a principle, the order as a foundation, and progress as a goal.
Auguste ComteThe only real life is the collective life of the race; individual life has no existence except as an abstraction.
Auguste ComteMen are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology: why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?
Auguste ComteEach department of knowledge passes through three stages. The theoretic stage; the theological stage and the metaphysical or abstract stage.
Auguste ComteBut now, I, August Comte, have discovered the truth. Therefore, there is no longer any need for freedom of thought or freedom of the press. I want to rule and to organize the whole country.
Auguste ComteIn the final, the positive, state, the mind has given over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their laws - that is, their invariable relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now understood when we speak of an explanation of facts is simply the establishment of a connection between single phenomena and some general facts.
Auguste ComteThe 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.
Auguste Comte