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Geometry is the art of correct reasoning from incorrectly drawn figures.

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
Reasoning
Drawn
Correct
Math
Figures
Art
Incorrectly
Geometry

More quotes by Henri Poincare

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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 as that, even if it existed, would be forever inaccessible to us.
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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.
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It is the simple hypotheses of which one must be most wary because these are the ones that have the most chances of passing unnoticed.
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Analyse data just so far as to obtain simplicity and no further.
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Experiment is the sole source of truth. It alone can teach us something new it alone can give us certainty.
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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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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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It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.
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It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena.
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But all of my efforts served only to make me better acquainted with the difficulty, which in itself was something.
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Guessing before proving! Need I remind you that it is so that all important discoveries have been made?
Henri Poincare
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It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover. To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better.
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...the feeling of mathematical beauty, of the harmony of numbers and of forms, of geometric elegance. It is a genuinely aesthetic feeling, which all mathematicians know
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Later generations will regard Mengenlehre (set theory) as a disease from which one has recovered.
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Point set topology is a disease from which the human race will soon recover.
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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 purpose, and, I daresay, an aesthetic purpose.
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It is far better to foresee even without certainty than not to foresee at all.
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Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation.
Henri Poincare
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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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We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling.
Henri Poincare