Every science consists in the coordination of facts; if the different observations were entirely isolated, there would be no science.

Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology: why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?

All good intellects have repeated, since Bacon's time, that there can be no real knowledge but which is based on observed facts.

Religion is an illusion of childhood, outgrown under proper education.

The universe displays no proof of an all-directing mind.

To understand a science it is necessary to know its history.

In 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.