140 Quotes by Henri Poincare

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

The task of the educator is to make the child’s spirit pass again where its forefathers have gone, moving rapidly through certain stages but suppressing none of them. In this regard, the history of science must be our guide.

Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority.

How is an error possible in mathematics?

Facts do not speak.

Science is facts.

Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves, has no objective existence.

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.

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.