Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything. Henri Poincare More Quotes by Henri Poincare More Quotes From Henri Poincare The subliminal self is in no way inferior to the conscious self. It knows how to choose and to divine. Henri Poincare intuitionselfway A cat is witty, he has nerve, he knows how to do precisely the right thing at the right moment. Henri Poincare nervescatwitty Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation They always presuppose a soil seeded with preliminary knowledge and well prepared by labour, both conscious and subconscious. Henri Poincare preparationmathdiscovery Science is built up with 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. Henri Poincare stoneshousescience It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. Henri Poincare finalsdifferencesscience Chance ... must be something more than the name we give to our ignorance. Henri Poincare ignorancenamesscience We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling. Henri Poincare often-istruthwonder Most striking at first is the appearance of sudden illumination, a manifest sign of long unconscious prior work. Henri Poincare illuminationlongfirsts 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 that is not easy of solution, but yet must engage the attention of all who wish to devote themselves to education. Henri Poincare skeletonsunderstandingscience It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details. Henri Poincare unitygivingorder I entered an omnibus to go to some place or other. At that moment when I put my foot on the step the idea came to me, without anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it, that the transformations I had used to define the Fuchsian functions were identical with non-Euclidean geometry. Henri Poincare feetstepsideas Doubting everything and believing everything are two equally convenient solutions that guard us from having to think Henri Poincare spiritualbelievethinking Logic sometimes makes monsters. For half a century we have seen a mass of bizarre functions which appear to be forced to resemble as little as possible honest functions which serve some purpose. Henri Poincare purposehalflittles What is a good definition? For the philosopher or the scientist, it is a definition which applies to all the objects to be defined, and applies only to them; it is that which satisfies the rules of logic. But in education it is not that; it is one that can be understood by the pupils. Henri Poincare definitionsunderstandingscience For a long time the objects that mathematicians dealt with were mostly ill-defined; one believed one knew them, but one represented them with the senses and imagination; but one had but a rough picture and not a precise idea on which reasoning could take hold. Henri Poincare sciencelongideas It is with logic that one proves; it is with intuition that one invents. Henri Poincare prove-itintuitionlogic Sociology is the science with the greatest number of methods and the least results. Henri Poincare technologynumbersscience When the physicists ask us for the solution of a problem, it is not drudgery that they impose on us, on the contrary, it is us who owe them thanks. Henri Poincare thanksproblemscience Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts. Henri Poincare stoneshousefacts One does not ask whether a scientific theory is true, but only whether it is convenient. Henri Poincare convenienttheorydoe
