Quotes by Henri Poincare

“Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves, has no objective existence.”

“If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.”

“The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.”

“A scientist worthy of his name, about all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature.”

“If we knew exactly the laws of nature and the situation of the universe at the initial moment, we could predict exactly the situation of the same universe at a succeeding moment.”

“It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.”

“Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”

“A very small cause which escapes our notice determines a considerable effect that we cannot fail to see, and then we say that the effect is due to chance.”

“Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house.”

“If we wish to foresee the future of mathematics, our proper course is to study the history and present condition of the science.”

“How is it that there are so many minds that are incapable of understanding mathematics? ... the skeleton of our understanding, ... and actually they are the majority. ... We have here a problem tha...”

“The philosophers make still another objection: "What you gain in rigour," they say, "you lose in objectivity. You can rise toward your logical ideal only by cutting the bonds which attach you to re...”

“Pure analysis puts at our disposal a multitude of procedures whose infallibility it guarantees; it opens to us a thousand different ways on which we can embark in all confidence; we are assured of ...”

“Consider now the Milky Way. Here also we see an innumerable dust, only the grains of this dust are no longer atoms but stars; these grains also move with great velocities, they act at a distance on...”

“Why is it that showers and even storms seem to come by chance, so that many people think it quite natural to pray for rain or fine weather, though they would consider it ridiculous to ask for an ec...”

“Physicists believe that the Gaussian law has been proved in mathematics while mathematicians think that it was experimentally established in physics.”

“Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.”

“Thinking must never submit itself, neither to a dogma, nor to a party, nor to a passion, nor to an interest, nor to a preconceived idea, nor to whatever it may be, if not to facts themselves, becau...”

“Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house.”