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It is a misfortune for a science to be born too late when the means of observation have become too perfect. That is what is happening at this moment with respect to physical chemistry the founders are hampered in their general grasp by third and fourth decimal places.

Henri Poincare

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Henri Poincare
Age: 58 †
Born: 1854
Born: April 29
Died: 1912
Died: July 17
Astronomer
Engineer
Mathematician
Philosopher
Philosopher Of Science
Physicist
Researcher
Topologist
University Teacher
Le Cateau
Jules Henri Poincaré
Poincaré
Henri Poincare
Jules Henri Poincare
Poincare
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Physical
Fourth
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Chemistry
Decimal
Science
General
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Decimals
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Third
Hampered
Become
Late
Thirds
Misfortune
Mean
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Perfect
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Most striking at first is the appearance of sudden illumination, a manifest sign of long unconscious prior work.
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If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living
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All of mathematics is a tale about groups.
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Thus, be it understood, to demonstrate a theorem, it is neither necessary nor even advantageous to know what it means.
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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 advantageous to the species or, in other words, the most convenient. Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.
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Later generations will regard Mengenlehre (set theory) as a disease from which one has recovered.
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Every good mathematician should also be a good chess player and vice versa.
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Ideas rose in clouds I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination.
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Mathematicians do not study objects, but relations among objects they are indifferent to the replacement of objects by others as long the relations don't change. Matter is not important, only form interests them.
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The mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge of a physical law. They reveal the kinship between other facts, long known, but wrongly believed to be strangers to one another.
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The subliminal self is in no way inferior to the conscious self. It knows how to choose and to divine.
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In the old days when people invented a new function they had something useful in mind.
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All great progress takes place when two sciences come together, and when their resemblance proclaims itself, despite the apparent disparity of their substance.
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It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.
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Tolstoi explains somewhere in his writings why, in his opinion, “Science for Science's sake” is an absurd conception. We cannot know all the facts, since they are practically infinite in number. We must make a selection. Is it not better to be guided by utility, by our practical, and more especially our moral, necessities?
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We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling.
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Point set topology is a disease from which the human race will soon recover.
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In the old days when people invented a new function they had something useful in mind. Now, they invent them deliberately just to invalidate our ancestors' reasoning, and that is all they are ever going to get out of them.
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Mathematicians do not study objects, but the relations between objects.
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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.
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