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Ifs Quotes by Henri Poincare

8 Ifs quotes by Henri Poincare

All Ifs quotes Henri Poincare’s page

When you wonder how a mathematician frames “what‑if” moments, this short set of eight Poincaré reflections offers a crisp glimpse. Each line peels back a layer of his logical curiosity, giving you a quick taste of his style without overwhelming you.

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All the scientist creates in a fact is the language in which he enunciates it. If he predicts a fact, he will…

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Every phenomenon, however trifling it be, has a cause, and a mind infinitely powerful, and infinitely well-informed concerning the laws of nature…

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This harmony that human intelligence believes it discovers in nature - does it exist apart from that intelligence? No, without doubt, a…

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If we ought not to fear mortal truth, still less should we dread scientific truth. In the first place it can not…

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A first fact should surprise us, or rather would surprise us if we were not used to it. How does it happen…

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A reality completely independent of the spirit that conceives it, sees it, or feels it, is an impossibility. A world so external…

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It is often said that experiments should be made without preconceived ideas. That is impossible. Not only would it make every experiment…

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Thus, be it understood, to demonstrate a theorem, it is neither necessary nor even advantageous to know what it means. The geometer…

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More by Henri Poincare

The mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge…

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. . . by natural selection our mind has adapted itself to the conditions of the external world. It has adopted the geometry most…

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If we knew exactly the laws of nature and the situation of the universe at the initial moment, we could predict exactly the situation…

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Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves,…

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Science is facts.

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Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves,…

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All of mathematics is a tale about groups.

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A cat is witty, he has nerve, he knows how to do precisely the right thing at the right moment.

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In the old days when people invented a new function they had something useful in mind.

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Intuition is more important to discovery than logic.

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Mathematics has a threefold purpose. It must provide an instrument for the study of nature. But this is not all: it has a philosophical…

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Experiment is the sole source of truth.

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“ Qu'une goutee de vin tombe dans un verre d'eau; quelle que soit la loi du movement interne du liquide, nous verrons bientôt se…

Henri Poincaré

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If that enabled us to predict the succeeding situation with the same approximation, that is all we require, and we should say that the…

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“ Le savant doit ordonner ; on fait la science avec des faits comme une maison avec des pierres ; mais une accumulation de…

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