It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
In one word, to draw the rule from experience, one must generalize; this is a necessity that imposes itself on the most… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
“ La pensée n'est qu'un écliar au milieu d'une longue nuit. Mais c'est cet éclair qui est tout. Thought is only a… — Henri Poincaré Copy Share Image
Tolstoi explains somewhere in his writings why, in his opinion, "Science for Science's sake" is an absurd conception. We cannot know all… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
On fait la science avec des faits, comme on fait une maison avec des pierres; mais une accumulation de faits n'est pas… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
Doubt everything or believe everything: these are two equally convenient strategies. With either we dispense with the need for reflection. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
“ Deviner avant de démontrer! Ai-je besoin de rappeler que c'est ainsi que se sont faites toutes les découvertes importantes. Guessing before… — Henri Poincaré Copy Share Image
Sociology is the science with the greatest number of methods and the least results. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
If we wish to foresee the future of mathematics, our proper course is to study the history and present condition of the… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it,… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
The aim of science is not things themselves, as the dogmatists in their simplicity imagine, but the relation between things. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
I then began to study arithmetical questions without any great apparent result, and without suspecting that they could have the least connexion… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
One would have to have completely forgotten the history of science so as to not remember that the desire to know nature… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
A scientist worthy of his name, about all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
All great progress takes place when two sciences come together, and when their resemblance proclaims itself, despite the apparent disparity of their… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
A reality completely independent of the spirit that conceives it, sees it, or feels it, is an impossibility. A world so external… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
All that we can hope from these inspirations, which are the fruits of unconscious work, is to obtain points of departure for… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
The advance of science is not comparable to the changes of a city, where old edifices are pitilessly torn down to give… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
Experiment is the sole source of truth. It alone can teach us something new; it alone can give us certainty. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
It is often said that experiments should be made without preconceived ideas. That is impossible. Not only would it make every experiment… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
So is not mathematical analysis then not just a vain game of the mind? To the physicist it can only give a… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
A very small cause, which escapes us, determines a considerable effect which we cannot ignore, and we say that this effect is… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
Chance ... must be something more than the name we give to our ignorance. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
The mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
. . . by natural selection our mind has adapted itself to the conditions of the external world. It has adopted the geometry most… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
If we knew exactly the laws of nature and the situation of the universe at the initial moment, we could predict exactly the situation… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves,… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves,… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
A cat is witty, he has nerve, he knows how to do precisely the right thing at the right moment. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
In the old days when people invented a new function they had something useful in mind. — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
Mathematics has a threefold purpose. It must provide an instrument for the study of nature. But this is not all: it has a philosophical… — Henri Poincare Copy Share Image
