Henri Poincare

Facts do not speak.

— Henri Poincare

Science is facts.

— Henri Poincare

To invent is to discern, to choose.

— Henri Poincare

All of mathematics is a tale about groups.

— Henri Poincare

Mathematicians are born, not made.

— Henri Poincare

Need we add that mathematicians themselves are not infallible?

— Henri Poincare

Intuition is more important to discovery than logic.

— Henri Poincare

Mathematicians do not study objects, but relations between objects.

— Henri Poincare

Experiment is the sole source of truth.

— Henri Poincare

Hypotheses are what we lack the least.

— Henri Poincare

One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient.

— Henri Poincare

It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena.

— Henri Poincare

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

— Henri Poincare

It is with logic that one proves; it is with intuition that one invents.

— Henri Poincare

Every good mathematician should also be a good chess player and vice versa.

— Henri Poincare

Later generations will regard Mengenlehre (set theory) as a disease from which one has recovered.

— Henri Poincare

Chance ... must be something more than the name we give to our ignorance.

— Henri Poincare

It has adopted the geometry most advantageous to the species or, in other words, the most convenient.

— Henri Poincare

Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation They always presuppose a soil seeded with preliminary knowledge and well…

— Henri Poincare

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

— Henri Poincare

A very small cause which escapes our notice determines a considerable effect that we cannot fail to see, and then we say…

— Henri Poincare

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

— Henri Poincare

When the physicists ask us for the solution of a problem, it is not drudgery that they impose on us, on the…

— Henri Poincare

Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things. [As opposed to the quotation: Poetry is the art of…

— Henri Poincare

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

— Henri Poincare

Mathematicians do not deal in objects, but in relations between objects; thus, they are free to replace some objects by others so…

— Henri Poincare

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

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

— Henri Poincare

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

— Henri Poincare

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

— Henri Poincare

So is not mathematical analysis then not just a vain game of the mind? To the physicist it can only give a…

— Henri Poincare

Often when works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the first attack. Then one takes a rest, long or…

— Henri Poincare

I entered an omnibus to go to some place or other. At that moment when I put my foot on the step…

— Henri Poincare

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

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

— Henri Poincare

Analyse data just so far as to obtain simplicity and no further.

— Henri Poincare

Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.

— Henri Poincare

Les faits ne parlent pas. Facts do not speak.

— Henri Poincare

How is error possible in mathematics?

— Henri Poincare

Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts.

— Henri Poincare