Love as a principle and order as the basis; Progress as the goal.

 Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte ( 1798 – 1857), better known as Auguste Comte, was a French philosopher. He was a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. He is sometimes regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term. Comte likewise coined the word altruisme (altruism).

Comte offered an account of social evolution, proposing that society undergoes three phases in its quest for the truth according to a general 'law of three stages'.

1. Man blindly believed in whatever he was taught by his ancestors. He believed in a supernatural power.
2. A Metaphysical stage involving the justification of universal rights as being on a vauntedly higher plane than the authority of any human ruler to countermand, although said rights were not referenced to the sacred beyond mere metaphor. This stage is known as the stage of investigation, because people started reasoning and questioning although no solid evidence was laid. The stage of investigation was the beginning of a world that questioned authority and religion.
3. A Scientific stage where people could find solutions to social problems and bring them into force despite the proclamations of human rights or prophecy of the will of God.

 The motto Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") in the flag of Brazil is inspired by Auguste Comte's motto of positivism: L'amour pour principe et l'ordre pour base; le progrès pour but ("Love as a principle and order as the basis; Progress as the goal").