Quotes by Henri Poincare

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

“To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.”

“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.”

“Ideas rose in clouds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination.”

“Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything”

“Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority. To invent is to discern, to choose.”

“Thus, be it understood, to demonstrate a theorem, it is neither necessary nor even advantageous to know what it means . . . .”

“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.”

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.

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.